Sofie was born in Belgium and studied in both Belgium and England. In 2000 she obtained an MSc degree in Advanced Environment and Energy Studies from UEL. She is a chartered architect and environmental designer with more than a decade experience in the building industry where she worked in architectural practice in multi-disciplinary teams, on both new and retrofit projects. Prior to joining the Energy Institute, she taught sustainability and environmental design for nearly a decade at the University of East London, where she also lead an MA Sustainability & Design programme.

She is author of ‘The Environmental Design Pocket book’,( March 2012, RIBA Publishing) which distills environmental science, legislation and guidance into one easy to use single source. The book has been shortlisted for the 2012 RIBA award in ‘outstanding practice-located Research’.

Sofie has also been undertaking freelance work for the Passivhaus Trust and as co-founder of Architecture for Change, a not-for-profit environmental building organisation alongside delivering environmental design education for SusCon amongst others.

Sofie is now Lecturer in the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield having passed her viva with minor corrections in June 2016.

Publications

‘The Environmental Design Pocket Book’, March 2012, RIBA publishing.
‘Eco Fact and fiction’, opinion piece in Ecotech, Architecture Today, June 2012, p 10
‘Considerations regarding the environmental performance of a building are often perceived by the building industry as an additional constraint or obstacle in a world beset by bureaucracy’, Comment piece in Blueprint, April 2012, p 83
Guest writer for Eco in the City blogs – Ecowan, month of April 2012 – re-posted at www.sofiepelsmakers.weebly.com
Paper Submission & presentation at 10th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies: “Developing a renewable energy selection toolkit for Istanbul”, September 2011, Istanbul, (Salman, Pelsmakers)
PLEA 2011 paper: “Urban sustainability assessment systems. How appropriate are global sustainability assessment systems?” (Kyrkou, Pelsmakers, Taylor, Karthaus)
PLEA 2011 paper:”Can the UK’s zero carbon standards for housing be a solution for CO2 reduction in Turkey? (Salman, Pelsmakers, Taylor)
PLEA 2011 paper & poster presentation: “Cost of retrofitting to PassivHaus standards” (Baeli, Pelsmakers)
PLEA 2011 paper/poster and the International Conference on Building Resilience: Interdisciplinary approaches to disaster risk reduction and the development of sustainable communities, Sri Lanka, July 2011: “Sustainable Solution for the Reconstruction of Low Income Housing in a Post-Disaster Zone” (Blanco-Lion, Pelsmakers, Taylor)
EPFL UNESCO presentation ‘Technologies for Sustainable Development Conference’, Lausanne, Feb 9th 2010: “Zero carbon Housing in dense urban areas: Can it be done? (and if so, how?) Case studies in UK, Kumasi (Ghana) and Teheran.” (Pelsmakers, Borna & Konadu)