UCL PEARL has been shortlisted in the ‘Net Zero Project of the Year’ category in this year’s Building Awards.

PEARL–the Person Environment Activity Research Laboratory–is a first-of-its-kind research laboratory in which to create life-sized environments such as a railway station, high street, or town square, under controlled conditions, so as to examine how people interact with their urban environment and each other.

As UCL’s first net-zero carbon in-use building, PEARL demonstrates the University’s strategic commitment to lead by example and operate in a sustainable way.

“Penoyre & Prasad’s design enables us to create an actively collaborative working environment so that it is easy for researchers to work with each other and members of the public to create a truly new world, better for people and planet.

We all have a responsibility to take action on climate change. With PEARL we had a chance to make choices that could really make a difference, so the design of the building and its operations had to enable us to do all our research and education activities and to do this in a way that is beneficial to the environment. We are very proud that this has led to UCL’s first carbon-negative building. Achieving net-zero carbon in-use and A+ energy efficiency is great for the planet and pretty cool for UCL. Having this at the heart of all our decision-making from the outset has enabled this outcome.”

– Professor Nick Tyler, Director of the Centre for Transport Studies, UCL CEGE

Winners will be announced at the Building Awards ceremony on 1st November 2022. View the full shortlist here.