REBEL is new. It is unconventional, bold, and ambitious. We aim for disruptive innovation, but mostly we want to have a substantial positive impact in the world we inhabit.
REBEL was initiated through the successful EPSRC research grant that Francesco won in 2017. This created the opportunity to have a collaborative space to work effectively on resource efficiency in the built environment
REBEL stands for Resource Efficient Built Environment Lab, and we do what it says on the tin. But that’s far from simple. The built environment is an extremely complex system, with thousands, more likely millions, of interconnected flows each interacting dynamically in space and time.
The built environment is also the world’s largest contributor to carbon emissions, energy use, resource consumption and waste generation.
Improving significantly such no-longer-bearable situation is what we do in our daily lives. [We also cook, eat, go to the loo, and hoover during weekends but that’s not glamorous so we’ll skip it].
Our aim requires necessarily an approach that transcends disciplines. So between us and ‘our friends’ you’ll find a great deal of available expertise. But that’ll never be enough and to help solve so many big issues it is truly the case that the more the merrier.
We’re academics. So we’re quirky but rigorous. Zealous but informal. Stubborn but passionate. And most importantly, we’re open. To collaboration, to share data, to work on projects together, to listen to ideas, to criticism. Our physical home is in a very special place in Edinburgh; ENU’s Merchiston campus built around the historic 16th-century birthplace and home of the very own John Napier [yes that guy who came up with the logarithms, among other things].
We aim to be one hub that adds to a global and committed community of practice. We are not exclusive, and you need not be physically near us to actually be close to what we do. If it sounds we would get on just fine do reach out.
REBEL 