School of the Built Environment

History

CST has continually evolved since the first energy research was carried out at the then New University of Ulster in the 1970s. Strong built environment component performance related research began to evolve in the in the 1980’s leading to building energy research being carried out at the Jordanstown campus of the newly formed University of Ulster. Strong complimentary research in clean combustion of fossil fuels and heat pumps at the Northern Ireland Centre for Energy Research and Technology and the creation of CST in the 1990’s gave the University of Ulster two strong research groups and the obvious decision was to amalgamate these two groups into the leading energy research group seen today.

The recent incorporation of architecture strengthens the built environment design influences and compliments the other developmental area of construction, which has evolved from a more materials focus into one that also considers the concepts of modern methods of procurement.

Sustainability is the built environment is also actively represented by the River hydraulics and the Highways Engineering Research Group (HERG), which itself was part of the commercially successful Transport Road Assessment Centre. River hydraulics has consolidated its channel led research into a smaller facility within the campus.