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Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Building Renovation Depth: A Danish Perspective
The construction industry accounts for a significant share of CO2 emissions in Europe and Denmark. Renovation can reduce these emissions since it is significantly less carbon-intensive than new construction. Denmark uses life-cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the climate impact of construction, but lacks standard mandates for renovation, leading to inconsistent LCA approaches. This research examines LCA methodologies for building renovations in Denmark, developing a tailored approach that draws on existing approaches outlined in the Danish Building Regulations and various reports from both private and public entities. It assesses different renovation depths (minor, moderate, deep) and preservation interventions. A case study of an actual renovation project in Denmark is used to analyse the energy and environmental impacts. The results indicate that LCAs for minor renovations are not methodologically viable due to their limited scope. In contrast, LCAs of moderate and extensive renovations yield meaningful insights, showing potential reductions of over 50% in energy use and 20–50% variations in overall CO2 emissions across scenarios. In addition, it is observed that energy renovations (i.e., adopting measures to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, especially in moderate and deep renovations) can reach a point at which further improvements do not significantly reduce emissions. Future research should expand LCA applications to a broader range of renovation cases and refine standardised methodologies. Additionally, studies should investigate climate benchmarks and incorporate social and economic factors shaping renovation decisions.
Journal Article
FXFOWLE : reveal, filter, evolve, effect
\"Monograph (in four volumes) on New York-based architecture firm FXFOWLE. Each of the four volumes is built around an individual theme: reveal (projects in the landscape), filter (interaction with culture/climate), evolve (adaptive reuse), and effect (buildings designed around a specific/unusual function). Each volume contains a short introduction from the firm, a critical essay by an outside writer, and comprehensive presentation of 4-5 projects. Heavily illustrated throughout\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
One-Stop-Shops for Energy Renovation of Dwellings in Europe—Approach to the Factors That Determine Success and Future Lines of Action
Energy renovation of buildings in the European Union would lead to considerable energy savings and a 26% reduction in energy consumption. Despite this and the programmes implemented to promote it in the residential environment in Europe and the United States, the barriers that homes, contractors, and finance companies face to undertake these processes have slowed down the results. The emergence of one-stop-shops (OSSs), promoted by European directives, as integrated management entities to promote the energy renovation of dwellings seems to be a central element in the development of future strategies. This paper looks at experiences of implementing OSSs in Europe, tries to identify the main factors of success, and proposes lines of action to strengthen OSS operation in the long term. To achieve this, documents, regulations, and data on the context were studied, and active cases of OSSs were analysed. Experiences of OSSs that are no longer operating were identified to determine why they had closed down. The results suggested that a lack of structural funding is one reason why activities terminated and that the most successful cases applied an ‘all inclusive’ model and supported families in the entire process.
Journal Article
The good ones
\"Ryder Copeland is an accomplished architect and one heck of a father ... He's everything a hero should be, and Lord knows, Maisy Kelly has read enough of her great-aunt Eloise's romance novels to recognize one when she sees one. But like all fairy tales, Maisy can't help but wonder if this Prince Charming is too good to be true ... Ryder is drawn to the shy, curly haired professor who hires him to convert the Victorian house she's inherited from her aunt into a romance bookstore. Attracted to a woman for the first time since his divorce, Ryder finds himself wishing for a future with Maisy that he knows is impossible. Ryder has never wavered from his plan to leave the small town of Fairdale, North Carolina, so he can give his daughter the life she deserves. But suddenly he's not so sure. And the closer he gets to Maisy, the harder it's going to be to walk away\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Extended partnership and knowledge sharing: the RETURN Urban Living Lab approach to social-ecological-technological innovation
The RETURN Extended Partnership aims to produce and share knowledge about environmental, natural and anthropogenic risks by promoting the active and proactive involvement of several interdisciplinary research groups, industrial partners and stakeholders. Against this scenario, the activities of Spoke TS1-Urban and Metropolitan Settlements included, among many initiatives, the activation of a series of workshops on the Urban Living Lab model in the Site of National Interest of Bagnoli-Coroglio aimed at sharing knowledge and experiencing processes of co-exploration, co-design and co-testing. The objective of the workshops organised according to the Urban Living Lab methodology is to develop cognitive and operational processes in which the technical approach enables the integration of socio-cultural and ecological-biophysical dimensions in the design processes.
Journal Article
Shifting the conservation paradigm
Changes in Earth's climate are accelerating, prompting increasing calls to ensure that investments in ecological restoration and nature conservation accommodate such changes. To acknowledge this need, we propose the term \"ecological renovation\" to describe ecological management and nature conservation actions that actively allow for environmental change. To evaluate and progress the development of ecological renovation and related intervention options in a climate change context, we reviewed the literature and established a typology of options that have been proposed. We explored how these options address emerging principles underpinning climate-adapted conservation goals and whether the balance of approaches reflected in our typology is likely to be sufficient given expected rapid rates of climate change. Our typology recognizes a matrix of 23 intervention option types arranged on the basis of underpinning ecological mechanisms (\"ameliorate changing conditions\" or \"build adaptive capacity\") on one axis, and the nature of the tools used to manipulate them (\"low regrets\" or \"climate targeted\") on the other. Despite a burgeoning literature since 2008, we found that the majority of effort has consistently focused on low-regrets adaptation approaches that aim to build adaptive capacity. This is in many ways desirable, but a paradigm shift enabling greater attention to climate-targeted approaches is likely to be needed as climate change accelerates. When assessed against five emerging principles for setting nature conservation goals in a changing climate, only one option type could deliver to all five, and we identified a conflict between climate-targeted options and \"wildness\" values that calls for deeper evaluation. Importantly, much of the inference in the 473 reviewed studies was drawn from ecological reasoning and modeling, with only 16% offering new empirical evidence. We also noted significant biases toward North America and Europe, forest ecosystems, trees, and vertebrates. To address these limitations and help shift the paradigm toward humans as \"renovators\" rather than \"restorers\" of a prior world, we propose that ecological researchers contribute by (1) informing societal discourse toward adapting nature conservation goals to climate change, (2) adjusting and upscaling conservation planning to accommodate this suite of climate-adapted goals, and (3) reconceptualizing experimental approaches to increase empirical evidence and expedite innovation of tools to address change.
Journal Article
RINNO: Towards an Open Renovation Platform for Integrated Design and Delivery of Deep Renovation Projects
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.
Journal Article
Strategic Prioritization of Residential Buildings for Equitable and Sustainable Renovation
The prioritization of energy renovations is critical to achieving sustainability goals and addressing socio-economic disparities in building stock. This study proposes a novel hybrid MultiCriteria Decision-Making framework for identifying and prioritizing residential buildings for energy efficiency upgrades. By integrating granular building-level data, such as energy performance and construction year, with socio-economic indicators like energy poverty and municipal income, the framework provides a comprehensive and equitable approach. Using Python for data integration and analysis, the methodology applies weighted factors to calculate the Building Priority Factor and the Municipal Energy Poverty Factor. A prioritization analysis for Slovenia demonstrates significant regional disparities in energy savings potential and renovation priorities, with some regions emerging as high-priority targets due to their aging infrastructure and elevated energy poverty levels. Conversely, densely populated urban regions with larger cities show lower prioritization needs. The proposed framework addresses limitations in existing methods by incorporating socio-economic and spatial data, enabling a dynamic and scalable approach to financial incentives. This approach aligns with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, providing actionable insights for national renovation plans. The findings highlight the importance of targeted, regionally tailored interventions to maximize energy savings, reduce inequities, and support sustainable development goals.
Journal Article
Review of Fungal Outbreaks and Infection Prevention in Healthcare Settings During Construction and Renovation
Hospital construction and renovation activities are an ever-constant phenomenon in healthcare facilities, causing dust contamination and possible dispersal of fungal spores. We reviewed fungal outbreaks that occurred during construction and renovation over the last 4 decades as well as current infection prevention strategies and control measures. Fungal outbreaks still occur in healthcare settings, especially among patients with hematological malignancies and those who are immunocompromised. The causative pathogens of these outbreaks were usually Aspergillus species, but Zygomycetes and other fungi were occasionally reported. Aspergillus most commonly caused pulmonary infection. The overall mortality of construction/renovation-associated fungal infection was approximately 50%. The minimal concentration of fungal spores by air sampling for acquisition of fungal infections remains to be determined. Performing infection control risk assessments and implementing the recommended control measures is essential to prevent healthcare-associated fungal outbreaks during construction and renovation.
Journal Article