Sustainability focused decision-making in building renovation

2017

Abstract An overview of recent research related to building renovation has revealed that efforts to date do not address sustainability issues comprehensively. The question then arises in regard to the holistic sustainability objectives within building renovation context. In order to deal with this question, the research adopts a multi-dimensional approach involving literature review, exploration of existing assessment methods and methodologies, individual and focus group interviews, and application of Soft Systems Methodologies (SSM) with Value Focused Thinking (VFT). In doing so, appropriate data about sustainability objectives have been collected and structured, and subsequently verified …

Tectonic Sustainable Building Design for the Development of Renovation Scenarios – Analysis of ten European renovation research projects

2018

The investigation of 10 European building renovation research projects presented in this paper demonstrates that recent research in this field is currently centralized around quantifiable objectives i.e. development of energy efficient renovation scenarios, whereas the more qualitative objectives in renovation projects such as aesthetics, identity and/or social dimensions are rarely addressed. Furthermore, the result of this investigation together with the recent researches about the current practice of building renovation indicates that many of renovated buildings, which now are claimed to be sustainable are not addressing all aspects of a conventional definition of sustainability. Lastly,…

Towards a Holistic Approach to Retrofitting: A Critical Review of Stateof-the-art Evaluation Methodologies for Architectural Transformation

2017

The building sector is well known to be responsible for a considerable part of the total European energy consumption. In the endeavor to implement radical reductions, there is an identified potential in addressing the existing building stock through deep renovations. These renovations make up complex, highly interdisciplinary systems. They involve stakeholders across a broad spectrum of disciplines and potentially affect the lives of a large number of occupants. The involved people bring different understandings of value in sustainability into a project and judge the outcome according to this understanding. As a response to this, a number of sustainable assessment methodologies for the buil…

Sustainable Renovation Framework: Introducing three levels of Integrated Design Process Implementation and Evaluation

2017

Future sustainable building renovation is a balance between the economic and environmental impacts related to the desired social activities facilitated by the renovated building. A review of recent research has revealed that the present efforts on sustainable objectives fulfilment in renovation projects are not sufficient. This paper investigates processes and frameworks in building renovation. It aims to deal with simplification of the existing complexity due to involvement of various types of stakeholders, sustainability criteria and potential renovation technologies in design process. Moreover, it facilitates understanding of the design process implementation through identification of th…

Towards a Holistic Methodology in Sustainable Retrofitting: Theory, Implementation and Application

2017

Sustainability paradigm foresees a balance of energy production and consumption with no, or minimal, negative impact on environment (within the environmental tolerance limits). It gives an opportunity to a country to employ its potentiality of the social and economic activities. An overview of recent researches about building renovation context demonstrates the lack of an appropriate methodology and decision support framework -by compounding the typical challenges of sustainable retrofitting from theory to implement stages- that takes into account the retrofitting projects throughout more comprehensive insights and perspectives. It calls, therefore, for a deep building renovation approach. …

A multi-methodology and sustainability-supporting framework for implementation and assessment of a holistic building renovation

La ristrutturazione degli edifici in futuro dovrà essere condotta secondo una prospettiva più olistica legata alla sostenibilità vista in una più ampia gamma di obiettivi/criteri e facilitata dagli scenari di ristrutturazione possibili. La ristrutturazione degli edifici dovrebbe servire a migliorarne le performance al fine di soddisfare le esigenze degli utenti, rendendo questi ultimi meno vulnerabili in relazione ai futuri costi energetici. Vi è un grande potenziale per ridurre il consumo di energia negli edifici esistenti. Tuttavia, ciò non deve comprometterè i valori architettonici e di qualità che rendono particolari. Pertanto, non possono essere semplicemente rinnovati, ma devono subir…

A HOLISTIC MULTI-METHODOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE RENOVATION

2019

A review of the barriers for building renovation has revealed a lack of methodologies, which can promote sustainability objectives and assist various stakeholders during the design stage of building renovation/retrofitting projects. The purpose of this paper is to develop a Holistic Multi-methodology for Sustainable Renovation, which aims to deal with complexity of renovation projects. It provides a framework through which to involve the different stakeholders in the design process to improve group learning and group decision-making, and hence make the building renovation design process more robust and efficient. Therefore, the paper discusses the essence of multifaceted barriers in buildin…