About the keynote

"Climate change and impact on building design for Scandinavia"

In this talk he will discuss how we couple of the work of climate science at the global level, including the IPCC, to the needs to plan for the challenges that climate change will bring at the very local level.

He will discuss expected changes that are particularly of relevance to the design of buildings, including changes in winds, rain, ground water, snow loadings, sea levels and storm surges, using examples from both Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia.

About Mark

Dr. Mark R. Payne is a climate researcher and the scientific leader of Klimaatlas, the Danish National Climate Atlas, based at the National Center for Climate Research at the Danish Meterological Institute (DMI).

He has a background and PhD in Chemical Engineering, and has worked as a researcher on climate effects on life in the ocean for much of the last two decades. He is the author of more than 50 scientific articles, and has contributed to the IPCC reports.

In his current role he is responsible for building a bridge between the society’s needs for climate information on the one hand, and the climate data generated by climate science on the other. Klimaatlas provides such information all the way down to the local level, and currently forms the scientific basis for climate adaptation activities in all 98 local authorities in Denmark.

About the keynote

"A way to increase quality in housing construction"

The purpose of the the Building Defect Fund is to inspect new and renovated housing estates that is publicly supported (social housing), as well as to cover and limit construction damage. In order to create a basis for improvements, the Building Defect Fund contributes knowledge and experience that can increase quality and efficiency in the building process.

The speech will go in to detail and exemplify how it is done.

About Jens

Jens Dons is a qualified architect from the Royal Danish Academy of fine Arts, School of Architecture in 1977

He has worked as an architect and Building Inspector in various municipalities in greater Copenhagen.

For more than 20 years he has been Technical Manager of the Building Defect Fund in Copenhagen and is now working as Technical Senior Advisor at the same place.

About the keynote

Research in the field of Building Physics often focuses on modelling approaches to predict the performance of materials, building components, or whole buildings. Simulations can help to explain pathologies, allow to conduct sensitivity analyses, and offer the potential to study the impact of alternative scenarios and future climates.

Validation often requires very controlled experiments to reduce the uncertainty associated with reality. However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. What can we learn from building pathologies?

On the one hand there is the land of Building Physics, where hygrothermal simulations indicate that a design either fails or will last forever. On the other hand, the field of building maintenance studies how building components systematically degrade over time due to e.g. exposure and a lack of maintenance.

This presentation aims to provide a perspective of combining research on pathology, building physics, and maintenance.

About Nathan

Nathan Van Den Bossche is associate professor in building science at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at Ghent University in Belgium.

In 2013 he finished his PhD at Ghent University on watertightness of building components. Exploring other interests, he also obtained a teacher's degree in Art Science, a certificate as carpenter, a bachelor in real estate, and a post-graduate in law for court experts. In 2010 he received a grant for a 4 month internship at the National Research Council Canada, and in 2021 he was appointed as guest professor at Politecnico di Milano for a year.

His research interests are building technology, watertightness, airtightness, thermal optimization of building components, and building pathology based on the modelling of heat, air and moisture transfer in buildings. He is in charge of the Test Centre for Façade Components at Ghent University.

He is author and co-author of over 150 research articles published in international journals, proceedings of international conferences and books. As a consultant he was involved in projects by Zaha Hadid Architects, Neutelings Riedijk, Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, Ian Simpson, Stephane Beel, and others.