The building stock accounts for a significant portion of worldwide energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. While the majority of the existing building stock has poor energy performance, deep ...renovation efforts are stymied by a wide range of human, technological, organisational and external environment factors across the value chain. A key challenge is integrating appropriate human resources, materials, fabrication, information and automation systems and knowledge management in a proper manner to achieve the required outcomes and meet the relevant regulatory standards, while satisfying a wide range of stakeholders with differing, often conflicting, motivations. RINNO is a Horizon 2020 project that aims to deliver a set of processes that, when working together, provide a system, repository, marketplace and enabling workflow process for managing deep renovation projects from inception to implementation. This paper presents a roadmap for an open renovation platform for managing and delivering deep renovation projects for residential buildings based on seven design principles. We illustrate a preliminary stepwise framework for applying the platform across the full-lifecycle of a deep renovation project. Based on this work, RINNO will develop a new open renovation software platform that will be implemented and evaluated at four pilot sites with varying construction, regulatory, market and climate contexts.
Holistic housing renovations combine physical housing improvements with social and socioeconomic interventions (e.g. referral to social services, debt counselling, involvement in decision-making, ...promoting social cohesion). In a deprived neighbourhood in Utrecht, the Netherlands, this paper examined residents' and professionals' experiences, ideas, and perceptions regarding holistic housing renovation, its health effects, and underlying mechanisms explaining those effects.
Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 social housing residents exposed to holistic housing renovation, and 12 professionals involved in either the physical renovation or social interventions implemented. Residents were interviewed in various renovation stages (before, during, after renovation). Transcripts were deductively and inductively coded using qualitative software.
Residents experienced and professionals acknowledged renovation stress caused by nuisance from construction work (noise, dust), having to move stuff around, and temporary moving; lack of information and control; and perceived violation of privacy. Involvement in design choices was appreciated, and mental health improvement was expected on the long term due to improved housing quality and visual amenity benefits. Social contact between residents increased as the renovation became topic for small talk. Few comments were made regarding physical health effects. The interviews revealed a certain amount of distrust in and dissatisfaction with the housing corporation, construction company, and other authorities.
Renovation stress, aggravated by lack of information and poor accessibility of housing corporation and construction company, negatively affects mental health and sense of control. Potential stress relievers are practical help with packing and moving furniture, and increased predictability by good and targeted communication. Social interventions can best be offered after renovation, when residents live in their renovated apartment and the nuisance and stress from the renovation is behind them. Social partners can use the period leading up to the renovation to show their faces, offer practical help to reduce renovation stress, and increase residents' trust in their organization and authorities in general. This might also contribute to residents' willingness to accept help with problems in the social domain after renovation.
•Different renovation intervention levels are evaluated.•The technoeconomic feasibility by itself does not explain the actual renovation rates.•Existing social, material and legal barriers are key ...for a comprehensive analysis.•Measures should be taken to boost district/building level interventions.
Building is one of the main sectors in which significant energy savings can be achieved with a consequent reduction in emissions. This paper assesses the large-scale renovation of buildings, exploring the quantitative and qualitative factors that determine their replicability potential from three different perspectives, namely dwelling, building and district intervention level. Different passive and active measures are assessed, covering energy saving measures, the improvement of energy supply systems and the integration of renewable energy sources. Different scenarios are defined for each intervention level, which are evaluated using the methodology developed in the IEA-EBC Annex 75 project. The methodology is applied to a residential district located in Bilbao (Northern Spain). The analysis is based on the results obtained from the simulation of 41 combinations of different renovation options, obtained by simulation in the Design Builder software. The assessment is carried out from the evaluation of different key performance factors, including annualised cost and annual primary energy consumption, as well as the CAPEX and OPEX requirements. The results show that energy renovation of buildings offers a great opportunity for energy reduction at affordable investment costs, obtaining the cost optimal values when the intervention focus on the energy system and reaching net NRPE values close to zero when the intervention is carried out in a comprehensive way, considering energy systems and thermal improvement of the envelope. Additionally, the different energy reduction scenarios show that, while interventions at district level offer the greatest potential for minimising annual costs and primary energy consumption levels, intervening at building level offers only slightly worse results. However, there are other issues which can better explain the current low rate of renovation works in the urban environment. Thus, if the additional existing social, material and legal barriers and constraints are included in the analysis, it becomes clear why renovation from a district perspective is not actually leading the race. Given this situation, some measures and policies are proposed to realise the true potential of large-scale building renovation.
The building sector is one of the key consumers of energy worldwide. Thus, the retrofitting of existing buildings provides excellent opportunities for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas ...emissions. This paper presents a critical review of the research undertaken on housing retrofits and discusses the approaches driving the assessment of energy-efficiency measures. It is clear from the existing literature that many retrofitting strategies are quite similar in their approaches, the most common of these being passive strategies such as insulation of the envelope, replacement of windows, and air sealing. However, the assessment methodologies differ broadly and widely, which restricts a comparison of the results across various studies. This current state of the art review highlights the need to apply a life cycle approach in order to find the optimal retrofitting solutions, and to identify the real improvement potential of housing renovation. Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost methodologies have been analyzed by discussing the existing limitations, which can be mitigated by sensitivity analysis. Finally, whilst social impacts were addressed in a few studies, life cycle social assessment was not conducted in any of the papers reviewed.
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•Evaluation methods as well as energy saving measures on housing renovation are described.•Environmental, economic and multi-criteria assessment methodologies are compared.•Key methodological aspects on sustainability assessment methods used in housing renovation are identified and analyzed.•A strong need for methodological harmonization considering environmental, economic and social impacts is found.
Future building renovations must rely on a holistic perspective in relation to sustainability. This paper presents a Decision Support Systems (DSS) that can be used by architects and engineering ...consultants to generate and evaluate the sustainability of renovation scenarios in a holistic manner during the early design stage of renovation projects. Firstly, this paper discusses both the notion of a sustainable renovation, together with various renovation approaches, towards the appreciation of the developing DSS for the generation of holistic scenarios. Secondly, it provides details about the mechanism and types of Multiple Criteria Decision Making methods to be exploited in the main body of the DSS. As such, a hybrid approach including a search algorithm with the Genetic Algorithm is used to combine and develop countless optimal scenarios. The performance of the generated scenarios is simulated and evaluated in terms criteria for Energy Consumption, Investment Cost, and Thermal Indoor Comfort. The trade-off between the criteria is addressed using the Pareto-front approach, and subsequently, the optimal scenarios are determined and selected using MCDM-based rating methods. The outcome is verified discussing a case study about an actual recently renovated dwelling and the top ranked generated scenarios using the DSS in this paper.
Building renovation must be attractive and profitable regarding sustainability criteria to be a competitive alternative to demolishment and construction of new buildings. This study presents the ...global warming potential related life cycle assessment and net present value life cycle costing of three hybrid-timber building renovation and extension systems. The three systems have been developed for three common building types in the Republic of Korea: residential high-rise (cross-laminated timber system), multi-use (glue-laminated and timber frame system), and residential low-rise (steel and timber frame system). The global warming potential of the renovation systems’ materials and their net present value has been calculated with a parametric design system that facilitates the streamlined calculation of multiple construction options and the resulting environmental and economic impacts. The results demonstrate that the three systems achieve negative global warming potential (apartment: −4.74 kgCO2/m2, mixed-use −0.74 kgCO2/m2, multi-unit: −0.28 kgCO2/m2). Positive net present value can be achieved by selling or renting additional useable floor space created through building extension and renovation, resulting in economically and ecologically profitable alternatives to new construction. The parametric calculation system facilitates integrated economic and ecologic cost assessment and evaluation and allows for multiple scenario comparisons.
•Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of 3 building extension and renovation systems.•Introduction of a parametric economic and environmental cost assessment system.•50 years life cycle assessment period & materials with minimized CO2-eq emissions.•All systems achieve negative CO2-eq emissions and positive Net Present Values.•Renewable materials & building extensions are crucial to achieve positive results.
Reaching environmental targets set by the European Union (EU) requires a constant renovation of the existing building stock to nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) in a cost-optimal manner. Studies ...show that the renovation rate of the existing building stock is more than two times less than what is necessary to reach the targets. Furthermore, the majority of performed renovations across the EU reach just a small amount of energy savings, whereas NZEB renovations are rarely achieved. This paper proposes a methodology for the evaluation of renovation measures, aiming to provide decision support related to the selection of what to renovate and to what extent. The proposed method is rooted in the well-established cost-optimal methodology, yet it suggests a pre-step to package evaluation. This is done by means of a simplified cost-effective parameter (CEP), linking cost, lifetime, and energy savings. The methodology is demonstrated using a case study building in Denmark. The results show that the CEP provides good grounds for the compilation of single actions to packages. Further developments could focus on the sensitivity of the model inputs and integration of additional evaluation parameters to cost, such as environmental, architectural, comfort, risk, etc.
Residential energy-related renovations have a high potential to reduce emissions. However, organizing such renovation is riddled with high transaction costs. In response, scholars and policymakers ...(e.g., European Commission) have advocated the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) concept to simplify house owners' access to complex renovation solution, but adoption of the concept remains slow. So far, research has focused on the positive impact of OSS at the end customer interface, paying less attention to the governance challenges among supply-side actors. We perform abductive research that combines insights from 45 supply-side actor interviews with transaction cost economics and resource-based theory toward developing a conceptual framework that outlines 15 organizational conditions for supply-side actors’ uptake of the OSS model. Empirically, we find that supply-side organizations are, at this point, reluctant to take up governance of the OSS model. The reported reasons for this vary between different classes of organizations, but overall align well with the organizational conditions outlined in transaction cost economics and resource-based theory. We propose policy interventions to tackle these shortcomings and to structurally support the supply-side of the renovation market in developing the relevant conditions for OSS uptake.
•Supply-side actors lag adoption of one-stop shop concept for residential renovation.•Lagging adoption is explained by transaction-cost economics and resource-based theory.•Large construction companies or engineering consultants could boost OSS adoption.•Supply-side oriented support schemes are important to increase adoption.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to estimate the renovation potential of a city’s building stock and evaluate the environmental impact reduction and greenhouse gas emission reduction realized ...by clustered renovation. These reductions are compared to the climate goals for 2050 by the city of Leuven, i.e., 81% reduction in CO
2
-eq. compared to 2011 to support the development of an optimal renovation strategy for the city.
Methods
The building stock of Leuven is analyzed and subdivided into various clusters of buildings with a similar renovation potential. This paper presents the existing status of one cluster consisting of terraced buildings built between 1946 and 1970 and assesses its required renovation measures using a life cycle approach by applying the Belgian LCA method for buildings. The environmental impact of this cluster and the potential reductions obtained by the renovation are upscaled and compared to the city climate goals. Based on these results, the total impact of this cluster on the greenhouse gas emissions of Leuven is calculated and the most impactful renovation measures identified.
Results and discussion
The results reveal that renovating the walls, floors, and roofs of the houses in this cluster in Leuven (representing ca. 5% of the stock) can lead to a reduction in CO
2
-eq. emissions of 0.9 to 1.9% compared to the emissions by Leuven households in 2011. This estimate ignores the improvement of the airtightness and the renewal of heating systems. So, higher reductions may be possible. The renovation impact of each of the building elements is evaluated separately, indicating that the highest improvements can be obtained by improving the insulation level of the walls. A sensitivity on the original state of the building has been performed by assuming the absence of (a small) insulation layer in the original roof state. This reveals a significant higher CO
2
-eq. reduction potential due to renovation.
Conclusions
The results demonstrate the appropriateness of the clustering approach in estimating the greenhouse gas emissions of a certain housing type and the potential contribution of renovating these to reduce the city greenhouse gas emissions. By extending this analysis to all identified clusters, the full potential of renovating the housing stock in Leuven can be estimated and can help in setting priorities in the overall goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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