Dr Arman Hashemi
SENIOR LECTURER-PROGRAMME LEADER BSC (HONS) ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
Dr Hashemi has over 20 years of experience in practice and academia in the UK and overseas. He has been involved in numerous award-winning research, design and construction projects. His primary research is on building performance evaluation with a focus on energy efficiency, thermal comfort and indoor air quality in buildings.
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AVA Building, Room 1.08, School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering (ACE)
University of East London
Docklands Campus
University Way
London, E16 2RD
United Kingdom
E16 2RD - a.hashemi@uel.ac.uk +44208233233
Dr Hashemi is the Programme Leader for BSc (Hons) Architectural Design Technology. Prior to this he was a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology at University of Brighton. Dr Hashemi holds a PhD from the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK and an MSc and BSc in Architecture from University of Tehran, Iran. After completing his PhD, he joined the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL as a postdoctoral research associate and designed and built an advanced automated Thermal Shutter System. He then joined the University of Cambridge as the lead postdoctoral researcher working on a £0.75m EPSRC/DFID/DECC funded research project: “Energy and Low Income Tropical Housing”. Dr Hashemi’s Research and Development works have been widely recognised and commended for their potential impact on the construction industry. He has received multiple awards on his construction and research projects as well as on his internationally patented product.
Dr Hashemi is currently a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Member of the Chartered Management Institute (MCMI), an Associate Member of the Chartered institute of Architectural Technologists (ACIAT), and a Member of the Iranian Construction Engineers Organisation. He has also been acting as a guest editor, scientific chair and as a member of editorial boards of scientific committees of several international journals and conferences.
Overview
Most Resent Research
The results of Dr Hashemi’s research have been documented in numerous publications including refereed journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, edited books and patents. His research interests can be classified under two main areas:
-Building Performance Evaluation
Dr Hashemi’s primary research is on building performance evaluation/simulation with a focus on energy efficiency and health and wellbeing in buildings. The key research areas include:
• Indoor Air Quality
• Thermal Comfort
• Natural Lighting
• Energy Efficiency; and
• Performance Gap
His research on the above areas has been through various means and methods including physical tests, post occupancy evaluation, simulation and/or laboratory tests. Probably, his most significant achievement during the recent years has been the design and development of an internationally-patented, multi-award winning thermal shutter system which can also act as a natural light reflector, solar shade and a secondary security device. The invented product benefits from innovative drive mechanisms and control strategies mixed with the most advanced materials to achieve significant savings of over 60 per cent in electric lighting and over 63 per cent in heat-losses through windows.
Energy and health and wellbeing in housing, and particularly in low-income housing, is another area of his research which he started at University of Cambridge and is now continuing at UEL. The research intends to identify, and then begin to propagate, methods of reducing the energy consumption of low-income housing.
Indoor air quality and air pollutants, in general, and moisture, dampness and the risk of mould growth, in particular, are the other areas of his research. Dampness is affecting a significant share of buildings in Europe, North America, Australia, India and Japan making it a major issue around the world. Dr Hashemi’s research aims to improve energy efficiency while reducing the risks of dampness and mould growth in buildings.
-Offsite/Modern Methods of Construction
In his PhD Dr Hashemi studied the relevance of Modern/Offsite Methods of Construction to delivering sustainable housing in the UK and in developing countries. His research then expanded into more recent issues such as Mass Customisation and Building Information Modelling (BIM) in offsite construction. He has been doing research and publication in these areas along with a team of experts in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Middle East. The main objectives are to investigate the reasons for the success and failure of prefabricated methods in different countries and to address housing shortages in both developed and developing countries.
Collaborators
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Research
Publications
Risks of condensation, dampness, and mould growth in renovated properties; University of Central Lancashire (PI), £30K, KT, Innovation Voucher.
-Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 (CO-I), €100K.
-Energy and Low Income Tropical Housing, University of Cambridge (RA), £750K EPSRC/DFID/DECC funded research project.
-Automated Thermal Shutter System; University College London (RA), £150K, KTP project.
Funding
Dr Hashemi’s supervisory interests are in line with his current research interests/projects as follows:
-Building Performance Evaluation/Simulation:
• Indoor Air Quality
• Thermal Comfort
• Natural Lighting
• Energy Efficiency
• Post Occupancy Evaluation; and
• Performance Gap
-Modern/Offsite Methods of Construction (MMC)
• MMC in Housing
• Building Information Modelling (BIM) and MMC
• Construction Technology Transfer
Interests
Portfolio
Dr Hashemi has been teaching and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students on subjects related to architectural design; construction methods and technologies; virtual design and fabrication; and building performance evaluation. Dr Hashemi uses examples from research and building projects to make difficult subjects more interesting and understandable for students. Students are encouraged to pay attention to details and critically evaluate, and present their design works. Dr Hashemi also encourages students to take on new challenges and, when applicable, present/publish the results of their research projects in international conferences and journals. In addition to access to library and online resources, students use drawing studios; computer labs; energy modelling, design and fabrication software packages; modelling workshops, 3D printers and laser cutters to deliver their projects.