Rate My Professor Jo Patterson

Professor Jo Patterson is a Professorial Research Fellow and Director of Research at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. With more than 25 years of experience, she develops and delivers fundamental and applied research projects on sustainability in the built environment, focusing on energy. Her PhD from Cardiff University (2014) examined urban scale modelling of traffic and cycling flow using space syntax modelling. Patterson leads multidisciplinary teams from Wales, the UK, and Europe, partnering with academic, industrial, and government entities on projects funded by the EU, UKRI, government, and industry. Current research consolidates efforts to improve existing built environments for enhanced quality of life and sustainability, providing evidence on renewable energy supply, storage, and demand technologies in housing and communities. She investigates drivers and barriers to low carbon system uptake in the UK and Europe. Previous work includes urban energy modelling for domestic properties and transport, evaluation tools for urban sustainability, housing and health, and sustainable schools.

Patterson co-directs the AHRC-funded Green Transitions Ecosystem ‘Transforming Housing and Homes for Future Generations’ (2023-2025), partnering with the Universities of Bath, Bristol, and Exeter to transform housing using bio-based materials and renewables towards ‘Beyond Net Zero’ homes. She led the £3.5 million SPECIFIC 2 Low Carbon Built Environment project, installing replicable, affordable whole-house energy systems across South Wales buildings, monitoring pre- and post-retrofit performance to reduce emissions, fuel poverty, and improve health and wellbeing. She contributed to the Low Carbon Research Institute, EnergyREV consortium (2018-2023) on smart local energy systems, and the Homes As Power Stations programme (to 2028). Holding roles on the Cardiff University Net Zero Innovation Institute Management Board, as Strategic Lead for the EPSRC Harmonised Impact Accelerator Account, in the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College (to 2025), and as Deputy Chair of the Wales Innovation Network Net Zero Strategic Board, Patterson supervises PhDs (one completed, five ongoing) and lectures on MSc courses in environmental design of buildings, building energy performance modelling, sustainable design, sustainable energy and environment, and MArch. Key publications include Perisoglou et al. (2025) 'Evaluating the performance of six 1970s off-gas deep retrofit bungalows' in Building Services Engineering Research & Technology; Morewood, Patterson, and Perisoglou (2026) 'Planning whole house energy retrofits in social housing' at CIBSE Technical Symposium; and Tweed and Patterson (2024) 'Retrofitting in context' in The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics.