Loughborough University
Leicestershire, UK
LE11 3TU
+44 (0)1509 263171
Civil and Building Engineering
Dr Kirk Shanks
BEng, MSc Arch, PhD
Lecturer/Academic Manager, The UK Doctoral Training Centre in Energy Demand Reduction and the Built Environment
Background
Educational background in engineering, architecture and energy science. Experience:
- Project management of EU RTD projects under European Commission SAVE/ALTENER and FP 5 programmes, design consultancy in building performance analysis techniques (daylighting, energy, life cycle analysis).
- Senior researcher responsible for building new research activity through generation and technical operation of research bids for government agencies and supervision of PhD studies in emissions scenarios, life cycle optimisation and energy behaviour.
External Activities
- Independent energy consultant in Ireland including role as freelance technical coordinator of Dundalk 2020
- Co-presenter and development consultant of national tv series My family aren't wasters ... for RTE 1, transmission May/June 2008
- Energy Consultant and Coach for the national energy efficiency campaign in Ireland, Power of One Street,2006/2008
- External assessor/evaluator for national and European agencies and publishers
- Member of judging panel at the Sustainable Building Show, Dublin, Ireland; radio interviews on energy behaviour
Broad Interests and Expertise
The multi-dimensional nature of how we design, build and use our built environment and the implications of these for the environment, economy and human experience.
Research Interests
- Energy use behaviour and the human experience of the built environment, including characterisation; feedback techniques; interventions and the motivational and technical drivers of habits
- Large scale building stock performance
- Early design stage evaluation of sustainable energy systems for buildings
- Assessing the effectiveness of policy instruments and impact of technological growth on national CO2 emissions
- The differences between predicted and actual energy performance of buildings
- The role of technology and messaging (implicit and explicit) in consumption patterns and environmental attitudes
- Architectural design theory, synthesis and decision making
Research Group
Building Energy Research
Previous Research Projects
- Power of One Street for Department of Communication, Energy and Natural Resources (IE)
- Principle Investigator, National study of sustainable energy systems to support the implmentation of the EPBD (funded by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland)
- PI Development of virtual building test platform for development of a weather predictive building management system (funded by Enterprise Ireland)
- Partner/Technical lead, Energy performance survey of Irish housing. (funded by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland)
- Design study of New engineering building at University of Limerick, including dynamic modelling analysis of solar chimney, electrochromic glazing and shading devices.
- Research Engineer/Project manager (partner) in EU projects RDPCLEVS; REASURE; KoPRACTICE
- Country partner in EU project USE Efficiency
