PhD in Architecture
MSc Building Technology
My research investigates the sustainability of buildings, indoor environmental quality, energy use in buildings and net zero buildings. I use monitoring techniques, architectural science and social science theories/methods to investigate the nexus between what people do and the performance and sustainability of buildings. I work in domestic sector, offices and educational buildings; in design and operational stages. I’ve undertaken research through observation, ethnography, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups. I am developing research with primary schools to coproduce research with monitoring data of building performance and codesign child led citizen science learning resources with/for children to experiment with building data.
I am architecture researcher with expertise on on sustainable buildings, indoor environment quality, thermal comfort, net zero, sustainable living in buildings and built environments.
I use social science theories (practice theory) and social science methods (qualitative: interviews, ethnography, observation, focus groups and qualitative: questionnaires). I use monitoring techniques to measure building performance and sustainability.
I am interested to collaborate in the topic of sustainable (living in) buildings considering various practices and perspectives : designers’, occupants’, policy makers’, educators’. I’m interested in child-led or community led citizen science to explore and coproduce sustainable solutions to mitigate climate impact of buildings and built environments
Selected publications, complete list available at https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/zapatag
Patel, H. and Zapata-Lancaster, M. 2023. Integrating views on building performance from different stakeholder groups. Journal of Corporate Real Estate
Zapata-Lancaster, M. G., Ionas, M., Toyinbo, O. and Smith, T. A. 2023. Carbon dioxide concentration levels and thermal comfort in primary school classrooms: what pupils and teachers do. Sustainability 15(6), article number: 4803. (10.3390/su15064803)
Fernández Goycoolea, J. P., Zapata-Lancaster, M. and Whitman, C. 2022. Operational emissions in prosuming dwellings: a study comparing different sources of grid CO2 intensity values in South Wales, UK. Energies 15(7), article number: 2349. (10.3390/en15072349)
Schweiker, M. et al. 2020. Evaluating assumptions of scales for subjective assessment of thermal environments – do laypersons perceive them the way, we researchers believe?. Energy and Buildings 211, article number: 109761. (10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109761)
Zapata-Lancaster, G. 2020. Architects’ tactics to embed as-designed performance in the design process of low energy nondomestic buildings. Presented at: Sustainability in Energy and Buildings 2019, Budapest, Hungary, 4-5 July 2019 Presented at Littlewood, J. et al. eds.Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, Vol. 163. Springer pp. 383-393., (10.1007/978-981-32-9868-2_33)
Zapata-Lancaster, M. 2019. Thermal comfort practices in non-domestic buildings within the organisational context. Facilities 38(1/2), pp. 114-131. (10.1108/F-01-2019-0010)