Delivering Matterport LiDAR digital twins alongside retrofit assessments across 600+ properties, balancing high-volume data capture with sensitive resident engagement in high-density, vulnerable-occupant estates.
Project Overview
- Client: Ambue (commissioned on behalf of Southern Housing)
- Sector: Social Housing & Housing Associations | Heritage & Listed Buildings
- Location: London (Islington), Sussex and the Isle of Wight
- Services Provided: Matterport LiDAR 3D Scanning, PAS 2035 Retrofit Assessments (RdSAP), Air Tightness Testing (Pulse, ATTMA TSL1), Whole-House Ventilation Surveys, Cavity Wall Borescope Inspections
- Scale: 600+ properties, spanning high-density multi-storey blocks and Victorian street properties
- Target: Millimetre-accurate “digital twin” diagnostic data for every property, harmonised with retrofit assessment, ventilation and air tightness data into a single source of truth for the retrofit design team
The Challenge
Southern Housing needed more than standard PAS 2035 compliance data for this Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.2 (now the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund) programme. Ambue, leading the technical design work, needed high-fidelity “digital twins” – precise enough to feed directly into their retrofit design software – across a genuinely complex, dispersed portfolio spanning high-density multi-storey blocks and Victorian street properties across London, Sussex and the Isle of Wight. That need was sharper still on the portfolio’s listed buildings, including the Grade II listed Samuel Lewis Trust Dwellings in Islington: with conventional measures like external wall insulation often ruled out by a building’s protected status, designers depend on precise room-by-room layout and dimensions to work out what internal measures are actually viable. On top of the technical challenge, many of the estates involved were facing real fuel poverty, and initial resident scepticism toward the retrofit process risked stalling site access before assessments could even get under way.
The Solution
Matterport LiDAR Digital Twins Alongside Retrofit Assessment
We deployed Matterport LiDAR technology to capture millimetre-accurate point-cloud data of each dwelling, front door and loft space, harmonising this with full RdSAP retrofit assessments, whole-house ventilation surveys and air tightness testing (to ATTMA TSL1 Pulse methodology) and cavity wall borescope inspections in a single site visit. Building the 3D scan into the same visit as the retrofit assessment meant Ambue’s designers got the complete layout and dimensions of every property without needing to return for a separate measured survey – avoiding an additional round of disruption in the assessment for residents already accommodating an invasive, multi-part retrofit process in their home. Assessors worked with residents to keep doors open throughout each property during scanning, ensuring a clean, complete capture in a single pass. The combined dataset gave Ambue’s design team a single, structured source of truth, uploaded directly into their own design environment for real-time visibility as they modelled insulation measures across the portfolio.
Safeguarding Response for Awaab’s Law
Assessments across the programme identified a small number of damp and mould hazards in some properties. The timing added particular weight: Awaab’s Law’s new safeguarding duties for social landlords came into force as the assessment programme entered its final months, meaning any Category 1 hazard identified from that point needed to trigger action within a strict statutory window. Where findings met that threshold, we escalated them the same day, giving Southern Housing the evidence it needed to act within the required timeframe.
The Outcome
The combined approach achieved high first-time access rates across complex, high-density estates, keeping the programme on schedule despite genuine initial resident scepticism. The resulting digital twins gave Ambue’s design team millimetre-accurate data to work from, reducing the risk of technical clashes and design rework once installation begins. Same-day escalation of the hazards identified also gave Southern Housing assurance that its Awaab’s Law safeguarding duties were met throughout. The work sits within Southern Housing’s wider retrofit programme, which has completed retrofit assessments across more than 3,000 homes portfolio-wide as part of a commitment to reach EPC Band C across its stock by 2030.
Client Testimonial
Ambue work with Building Energy Experts across a number of clients across the South East. [BEE’s assessors] are capable and adaptable working across a range of homes and archetypes where they are thorough and diligent in their assessments. [Their] easy and accommodating attitude puts Residents at ease to ensure they understand what [they are] doing to help improve the health and comfort of their home.
— Rowley Maggs, Strategic Advisor, Ambue Ltd
