The energy used in non-domestic buildings accounts for 18 % of the energy use in the UK. Within the non-domestic building stock, 11 % of office buildings have a very high influence on the energy use. Thus, the retrofit of office buildings has a significant potential for energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions reduction within the non-domestic building stock. However, the replacement rate of existing buildings by new-build is only around 1-3 % per annum. Post-war office buildings, (built between 1945 and 1985) represent a promising sector for retrofit and energy demand reduction. They have disproportionately high energy consumption because many were built before the building regulations addressed thermal performance. The aim of the research is to evaluate the retrofit strategies for post-war office buildings accounting for the improved energy efficiency, thermal comfort and hence, productivity, capital and the running costs. The research seeks to provide the optimal generic retrofit strategies and illustrate sophisticated methods which will be the basis for guidelines about post-war office building retrofit. For this, multiple combinations of heating and cooling retrofit measures were applied to representative models (Exemplar) of post-war office buildings using dynamic thermal simulation modelling. The retrofit strategies include; applying envelope retrofit to UK Building Regulations Part L2B and The Passivhaus Institue EnerPHit standards for heating demand reduction and winter comfort. Passive cooling interventions such as shading devices and night ventilation and active cooling intervention such as mixed-mode ventilation were applied to overcome summer overheating. All retrofit combinations were evaluated considering future climate, inner and outer city locations and different orientations. In summary, the results showed that under current weather conditions Part L2B standard retrofit with passive cooling provided the optimum solution. In 2050, however, both Part L2B retrofit naturally ventilated cases with the passive cooling measures and EnerPHit retrofit mixed-mode ventilation cases provide the requisite thermal comfort and result in a similar range of energy consumption. It was concluded that to create generic retrofit solutions which could be applied to a given typology within the building stock is possible. The methodology and the Exemplar model could be used in future projects by decision-makers and the findings and analysis of the simulations could be taken as guidance for the widespread retrofit of post-war office buildings.

This thesis examines the development of the soldier in late-Victorian Britain in light of the movement to rehabilitate the public image of the ordinary ranks initiated by the Cardwell-Childers Reforms. Venerated in popular culture, Tommy Atkins became a symbol of British imperial strength and heroism. Socially, however, attitudes to the rank-and-file were defined by a pragmatic realism purged of such sentiments, the likes of which would characterise the British public’s relationship with their army for over thirty years. Scholars of both imperial culture and the Victorian military have identified this dual persona of Tommy Atkins, however, a dedicated study into the true nature of the soldier’s position has yet to be undertaken. The following research will seek to redress this omission. The soldier is approached through the perspective of three key influences which defined his development. The first influence, the politics of the War Office, exposes a progressive series of schemes which, cultivated for over a decade, sought to redefine the soldier through the popularisation of military service and the professionalisation of the military’s public relations strategy and apparatus. A forgotten component of the Cardwell-Childers Reforms, the schemes have not before been scrutinised. Despite the ingenuity of the schemes devised, the social rehabilitation of the soldier failed, primarily, it will be argued, because the government refused to improve his pay. The public’s response to the Cardwell-Childers Reforms and the British perception of the ordinary soldier in the decades following their introduction form the second perspective. Through surveys of the local and London press and mainstream literature, it is demonstrated the soldier, in part as a result of the reforms, underwent a social transition, precipitated by his entering the public consciousness and encouraged by a resulting fascination in the military life. The final perspective presented in this thesis is from within the rank-and-file itself. Through the examination of specialist newspaper, diary and memoir material the direct experiences of the soldiers themselves are explored. Amid the extensive public and political discussion of their nature and status, the soldier also engaged in the debate. The perspective of the rank-and-file provides direct context for the established perspectives of the British public and the War Office, but also highlights how the soldier both supported and opposed the reforms and was acutely aware of the social status he possessed. This thesis will examine the public and political treatment of the soldier in the late-nineteenth century and question how far the conflicting ideas of soldier-hero and soldier-beggar were reconciled.

The use of temporary, prefabricated buildings in Britain during the twentieth century arose from wartime need to provide better, and perhaps more importantly, portable shelter for troops and equipment. This thesis provides the first comprehensive list of hut designs for the First and Second World Wars. The full lists and descriptions of each hut are given in the appendices. These lists, 20 types for the First World War and 52 from the Second World War, show the huge range and scope of the huts used and is the major contribution of this thesis. The concentration here is on generic types. Some huts were designed as one-offs and there is no possible way to catalogue these. This thesis has focused instead on those designs or industrially-produced types, which were meant to be produced en-masse as generic solutions to the problem: the sort of hut that might justifiably be given a name (such as a ‘Tarran’, a ‘Seco’, etc.). This thesis provides essential information enabling historians to be able to identify these types. It uses primary and secondary sources to trace the development of these huts and the effect that wartime shortages had on their design. Beginning with the earliest examples of temporary military building, it then focuses on the huts of the First and Second World Wars followed by a study of huts grouped in chapters by material. This research shows that the wartime period pushed industry to make giant leaps forward with construction methods and materials in just a few short years, where otherwise it may have taken decades. This thesis aims to provide the first overview of this process and to enable future researchers to identify and understand the development of these important wartime structures, many of which survive to this day.