Refurbishment

Hotels rank in the highest levels of energy consumption in the tertiary building sector. Improved service quality mandates that hotel building, facilities and installations are maintained to the highest standards in order to remain competitive, thus renovations are becoming common. Renovation is usually financially attractive when compared to demolition and reconstruction. This offers great opportunities for promoting energy efficient measures, exploitation of renewable energy sources (RES) and rational use of energy (RUE) in the hotel sector. The XENIOS methodology and software permits the user to perform a preliminary hotel audit and make a first assessment of cost-effective energy efficient renovation practices, technologies and systems. This paper presents a brief overview of the methodology and the various features of the XENIOS software and focuses on the results from four audits and a pilot study carried out in Mediterranean hotels.

“Towns which adhere to no formal geometry can be re-ordered by the imposition of new major enclaves. Control is less rigid but the contrast which towns thrive on is more immediate”. Patrick Hodgkinson Oct 1972

The Brunswick centre, a modernist low rise -high density housing was first envisaged by Architect Patrick Hodgkinson in 1959. For years the Brunswick centre had become a
controversial place. Once described as a “rain-streaked, litter-strewn concrete monstrosity that seemed destined for the bulldozer”, the 1960’s built Grade II listed Brunswick Centre underwent great transformation in 2006. This renovation has made this scheme an icon of modern refurbishment.

The main issues of concern was the effect of solar penetration and wind on the occupants comfort at the plaza and terrace level. Solar, wind studies, and occupant surveys were carried out and interventions were suggested to improve the daylight in the plaza level shops and revitalize the terrace level for the inhabitants. At the apartment level problems of overheating and glare due to the extensive SW glazing were observed. Solar studies were carried out to analyze the areas and time of overheating.

After completing the base study the important areas which required improvement were systematically addressed. The results showed that by half closing the inclined glazing will greatly mitigate the overheating and glare, but at the same time respect the initial idea of the architect of providing a view of the sky to each tenant. Upgrading all windows to double glazing ,insulating the cavity walls and the roof would bring the flat to a better level of livability and at par with the current building standards.

The aim objective of this paper is to identify the current scenario of refurbishment
activities/projects in Malaysian context. From the literature review and initial research among the
construction authorities, it was found that refurbishment activities have not looked into by the
relevant agencies though Malaysia has embarked on construction for the past 50 years. Therefore,
there is an urgent need for Malaysian construction authority and industry to conduct detailed study
in refurbishment area specifically on a lack of comprehensive and accurate data on the value
number of refurbishment projects in Malaysia and reducing the refurbishment waste generation

La sostenibilità nei suoi aspetti ambientale ed economico è divenuta, da diversi anni, tema centrale nei
dibattiti tecnici relativi a tutte le aree della produzione e della gestione dei beni materiali, sia a causa delle
conseguenti ricadute sull’ambiente, sia per le problematiche connesse alla dipendenza dalle fonti
energetiche non rinnovabili (esaurimento, razionamento da parte dei paesi estrattori, incremento dei costi).
Negli ultimi anni, con l’estensione del tema dai dibattiti tecnici alla sfera pubblica e politica è avvenuto un
rilevante cambiamento culturale e si è tentato di mettere in atto strategie di produzione e gestione
“sostenibili”.
Dal Rapporto Brundtland in poi il concetto di sostenibilità è stato sempre connesso alla difesa degli interessi
delle generazioni future tramite la non compromissione di un patrimonio comune (ambientale, culturale,
ecc.). Dalla metà degli anni Novanta – con la Conferenza di Kyoto – il tema della sostenibilità fu applicato
direttamente al settore edilizio per il suo significativo impatto sull’ambiente. L’edilizia è infatti responsabile
di circa il 40% dell’energia consumata in Europa (il 70% della quale deriva dall’energia usata per il
riscaldamento degli edifici (Commissione delle Comunità Europee 2005) e produce circa il 35% delle
emissioni di gas serra (Commissione delle Comunità Europee 2004, p. 21); inoltre la popolazione europea
trascorre quasi il 90% del proprio tempo negli edifici e per questo una cattiva progettazione o il ricorso a
metodi di costruzione inadeguati può avere effetti negativi non solo sui costi di gestione, ma anche sulla
salute umana (Commissione delle Comunità Europee 2004, pp. 21-22).
Nel settore delle nuove costruzioni il tema della sostenibilità ambientale è largamente pubblicizzato da anni,
spesso però come solo come schermo per nascondere una pratica progettuale e costruttiva che non ha
cambiato la propria impostazione generale, ma solo alcuni parametri progettuali (e.g. trasmittanza termica
delle chiusure) (Cinieri, Zamperini 2014, p. 724). Nell’ambito del costruito esistente invece l’intervento in
termini di sostenibilità è una novità attuale, sebbene da un punto di vista teorico la necessità di applicare i
principi della sostenibilità anche a edifici già costruiti sia stata messa in evidenza quasi vent’anni fa durante
le conferenza Habitat II (Nazioni Unite 1996, p. 9).
In Italia il 91,6% degli edifici che costituiscono il patrimonio edilizio nazionale è stato realizzato prima del
1991 (Ambrogio, Zuppiroli 2013, pp. 88-93), anno di emanazione della legge 10 del 9 gennaio 1991 - Norme
per l'attuazione del Piano energetico nazionale in materia di uso razionale dell'energia, di risparmio
energetico e di sviluppo delle fonti rinnovabili di energia. Nel secondo dopoguerra le città avevano subito
una grande espansione, connesso ad un’effettiva necessità di nuovi alloggi che furono spesso costruiti in
maniera frettolosa e con scarsa attenzione ai temi energetici; dopo una fase di inversione di tendenza tra
gli anni Settanta e gli Ottanta (quando si puntò molto sulla riqualificazione dei centri storici), a partire dal
decennio successivo si è costruito più delle effettive necessità. Il brusco calo di investimento nelle nuove
costruzioni – principalmente causato dallo scoppio della “bolla speculativa” (2007-2008) – ha portato a
incrementare il peso relativo degli interventi sull’esistente (vedi figg. 1-2) (Cinieri 2015, pp. 5, 104-105).
Le direttive europee 2002/91/CE e 2010/31/UE (EPBD) hanno trattato il tema il problema della sostenibilità
ambientale del patrimonio costruito esistente, tuttavia non hanno imposto standard prestazionali e hanno
demandato agli Stati membri l’applicazione dei requisiti prestazionali nell’ambito del patrimonio edificato
di valore architettonico-culturale (cfr. 2002/91/CE, art. 4, comma 1 e 2010/31/UE, art. 4, comma 2).
L’implementazione di strategie progettuali sostenibili per la gestione di beni ai quali è attribuito un valore
non solo economico, ma anche storico e culturale è oggi considerato di grande importanza e attualità. Negli
ultimi decenni si è infatti progressivamente ampliato l’interesse per la tutela dei beni architettonici storici
diffusi, che coincidono approssimativamente con quelli costruiti precedentemente alla diffusione – nel
Secondo dopoguerra – delle tecniche costruttive basate sulla produzione industrializzata dei componenti e
su una nuova organizzazione del processo edilizio (Cinieri 2015, p. 36). Sebbene in Italia questi edifici
corrispondano a circa il 30% dell’intero patrimonio edilizio, la vigente legge in materia di beni culturali
(D.Lgs 42/2004) tutela solo gli edifici dichiarati di «interesse culturale», corrispondenti a circa il 3% degli
edifici realizzati prima del 1946 (Ambrogio, Zuppiroli 2013, pp. 88-93; MiBACT 2014, p. 8).
Al di là del problema ambientale, la recente crisi economica ha reso più vincolante il tema della gestione
tecnico-economica dei beni edilizi, incentivando le ricerche volte al risparmio delle risorse.
Nonostante i fondi pubblici destinati a finanziare interventi conservativi siano stati progressivamente ridotti
negli ultimi anni, per il patrimonio storico che può essere considerato “emergente” spesso viene tollerata
una non sostenibilità ambientale ed economica; al contrario, per i beni diffusi (che costituiscono una parte
significativa dell’intero patrimonio edilizio) non si può evitare di mettere in atto strategie volte al risparmio
di risorse economiche (Cinieri, Zamperini 2014, pp. 726-727) e la problematica è particolarmente sentita
nell’ambito dell’edilizia residenziale.

Demands to ensure the standard of living and work space requirements are reflected in the current standards. Change of purpose of industrial heritage structures from production to non-production purpose (the conversion) brings different requirements to meet the standards, which are different in comparison with original factory functions. Hence there is need for intervention (refurbishment changes, additions, demolitions) into the original material from which the industrial heritage structures are assembled.
Historic buildings were built at the time, when were not considered in the current intentions of energy efficiency. Abandoned industrial buildings for new uses objective cannot offer sustainable options to the current standard of interior. For solving this dilemma are frequently used standard procedures of addition of insulating boards to exterior side of façades. Result may appear as change in the architectural expression of the building. For valuable (memorable) architectures, this means a loss of cultural (aesthetic) values of the original building, which is in terms of cultural interest not acceptable procedure.
The construction market appear with new materials. One class of such thermal insulation materials are aerogel based thermal insulations. Paper shows application possibilities of aerogel based insulations on industrial heritage buildings.

This study presents a method for assessing energy efficient refurbishment options for schools in the UK. The method accounts for life
cycle effects on cost and carbon emissions since refurbished buildings will last for many years. Four schools are identified as representative of school archetypes built in the UK during four distinct periods in the 20th century. The
schools are used as a base for simulation of the effects of energy efficient refurbishment of building fabric and heating plant. All possible combinations of the selected measures are simulated. Simulated energy savings are then compared between the four school buildings, demonstrating how physical characteristics of the schools affect the available savings. Simulating combinations of energy efficiency mea- sures allow analysis of interaction effects between measures, and reveals some positive and some negative interactions. A regression model of energy savings in the four schools is also developed. Simulated energy savings are then used as inputs for a life cycle assessment model. Life cycle indicators considered are marginal life
cycle cost and marginal life cycle carbon footprint. These metrics are used to rank the energy efficiency measures on net present value and life cycle carbon footprint saving, both individually and in combination with each other. Carbon payback is shorter than financial payback in all scenarios, and all measures and combinations of measures repaid the carbon
invested in them. Positive net present value is less common, and frequently depends on air tightness improvements also being achieved.

The paper discusses socio-economic and cultural conditions and technological and formal aspects which attests rooftop additions on existing buildings as a model for increasing built density of residential area. In Italy most of the residential buildings constructed in postwar period have today low architectural quality and are degraded. The need for upgrade of this real estate gives the opportunity to implement strategies to reduce land consumption through rooftop additions. In a conservative approach to built heritage, the dismantling of roofs implies a loss of material culture; otherwise, the construction of the same volumes in new areas would cause an irreversible land consumption. A conflict rises between the needs for conservation of built heritage and of territory; in accordance with Amedeo Bellini, the resolution of this conflict must be based on ethical judgments. Thus the addition shouldn’t be a parasite, but it must achieve a symbiotic architecture in which both host and symbiont derive benefit from the interaction.

Processes of increase in urban population have always been characterized by an alternation of phases in which densification of existing urban fabric prevailed, with other in which the prevalent phenomenon was urban expansion. Phases of density increase are related to physical constraints or economic-political issues. Expansion prevails in periods in which constraints disappear. In recent decades, the housing bubble has fostered the so-called urban sprawl, which irreversibly subtracts room for agriculture and natural environment. The goal of sustainability imposes to hold down land consumption. Nevertheless, evolution of needs and changes in activities require adequate spaces. This paper proposes the use of symbiotic architecture to requalify and rationally densify urban fabric: the possibility to create new built volumes in already-urbanized areas prevents the creation of new infrastructure, allowing to allocate resources to the redevelopment of existing ones; the increase of building density consent neighbourhoods to reach a critical mass of inhabitants allowing the establishment of new services. Proposed solutions cannot be regulated by general rules; they should be governed by specific urban plans based on the study of the anthropic load on existing infrastructures and on the protection of already saturated areas from property speculation.

The report focuses on the mineral natural resources needed for digitalization. The use of digital applications and digital devices continues to grow and increasing amounts of information are being converted into a digital format. Prior research on digitalization in the context of sustainability has focused mainly on energy consumption and emissions. However, with the increasing demand for ICT hardware in numerous applications in modern society, the raw materials requirement of digital devices has become a crucial sustainability issue. Therefore,
this report delves deeper into the topic of the raw materials consumption of digitalization.

We focus on the following challenges and topics:
• Sources, production, availability and sustainability of digitalization raw materials
• ICT sector’s raw materials consumption, with a specific focus on selected key 
end-user devices: smartphones and smart TVs
• Key aspects of the ICT value chain
• Key ICT consumer and end-user aspects
• Possible solutions to support the sustainability of digital devices throughout their life cycle
• Key policy aspects and recommendations

"ENG:
The issue of the relationship between contemporary architecture and pre-existence is of utmost importance as always and nowadays increasingly architects tend to operate with additions or substitutions in the core of already urbanized areas, both of the historic city and in recently built context.
The paper present a critical description of the particular reasons that lead to insert new architecture in existing building tissue and of objectives that arises with respect to pre-existence in order to carry out an analysis of the conceptual and practical approaches arising therefrom; finally, the paper highlights the impact of these actions on transmission of existing buildings to future generations.
Only a careful dialogical approach to the inclusion of new architecture in the built contexts can be the herald of the modern instances of protection of existing heritage, safeguarding its historical authenticity and the multiplicity of its tangible and intangible features, which are proposed as data that are always subject to countless and endlessly new interpretations. In the variety of its forms and within the limits of respect for pre-existence, the dialogical approach also allows full freedom of expression to contemporary architecture allowing to add new cultural resources to the multilayered built palimpsest.

ESP:
La cuestión de la relación entre la arquitectura contemporánea y la preexistente es de suma importancia, ya que desde siempre y cada vez más se sigue trabajand con las adiciones o sustituciones en áreas ya urbanizadas, tanto en el casco histórico como en contextos de más reciente construcción.
El artículo presenta un análisis crítico de las motivaciones contingentes que llevan a la inclusión de nuevas arquitecturas en lo construido y de los objetivos que se plantean respecto a la preexistencia, con el fin de llegar a la realizazión de un análisis de las orientaciónes conceptuales y prácticas que derivan de ellos; por fin se van a subrayar los efectos de estas intervenciones sobre la transmisión del patrimonio arquitectónico existente a las generaciones futuras.
Sólo una cuidadosa orientación dialógica hacia la inclusión de nuevas arquitecturas en contextos construidos puede ser el portador de las instancias modernas de tutela del existente, en su autenticidad histórica y en la multiplicidad de sus características materiales e inmateriales, que se presentan como datos que siempre serán sometidos a infinitas interpretaciones infinitamente nuevas. En la multiplicidad de sus formas y dentro de los límites respecto a la preexistencia, la orientación dialógica también permite la plena libertad de expresión de la arquitectura contemporánea permitiendo añadir nuevos recursos culturales al palimpsesto edificado."

Recent international economic crisis highlighted the limits of present development models. In the light of problems arising from land consumption it’s necessary to question the models of unlimited urban expansion acting on cities with new strategies for requalification and enhancement of dequalified spaces through rational densification of existing urban fabric. In many countries we can observe examples of ongoing densification processes, that provide reinterpretations of consolidated urban fabric types in which they act: in Beijing some examples of the insertion of new volumes into historical fabric manifest an attempt to protect the siheyuan through their upgrade; in the UK there are many examples of addition of new volumes for the expansion of terraced houses, with the partial saturation of their courtyards; in North America, where urban sprawl generated endless suburbs of isolated houses, new buildings were placed in the spaces between a house and the other; in Paris apartment blocks suburbs, starting from the rereading of critical issues of urban fabric the upgrading and retrofitting of low-quality social housing was obtained through articulated interventions of volumetric addition. Furthermore, the paper proposes a rereading of Italian suburban districts and their requalification through densification interventions by rational interventions of symbiotic architecture.

In spite of various initiatives, much of the UK university building stock is ageing and in need of modernisation both in terms of environmental performance and to respond to the changing landscape of pedagogy and andragogy. Higher educational establishments like to portray themselves as pioneers of a green campaign however decision processes may not always be as easy and straightforward as they seem. Contributing factors will include the complexity of the client brief, the difficulties of timetabling, the desire to operate democratic processes in decision-making and the inevitable compromises resulting from these often conflicting demands. Most universities will have restrictions on the budget, time and working schedules compounded by the need to carry out the construction work on sites where the normal academic activities are to continue. Many university clients will involve the end users in the process of decision-making causing an information overflow whilst some others choose no...

In this work a multi-story residential building located in Cinisello Balsamo, near Milan, was considered as case study for the application of two new prefabricated building systems for the energy retrofit. The first one, developed within EASEE, a European project funded by 7 th Framework Program, consists in a preassembled insulated panel for the retrofit of facades, based on two TRC thin precast layers rigidly connected to an EPS core. The panels can be easily applied on the external side of existing facades without the use of scaffoldings, providing an additional efficient insulation as well a new external cladding. The second one consists in a preassembled timber panel for existing pitched roofs. The process includes the substitution of the existing roof with modular integrated panels with a high content of recycled materials that can be easily fixed on the existing structures (timber frames, concrete, masonry, etc.). The combination of the two prefabricated construction systems, applied on the case study, allowed the reduction of the building energy demand by 82%.

Abstract-Over the years building energy performance has become a predominant concern for owners and real estate managers. The focus is usually on residential buildings but in the last twenty years an interest in non-domestic buildings has emerged in the UK. Benchmarks can generally be found at UK scale, although often restricted to England and Wales. This paper aims to provide benchmarks for the Scottish non-domestic building stock as part of the City of Edinburgh Council estate. In this research, the selected sample includes energy data and calculated carbon emissions of 199 buildings. The deciding parameters were the energy use intensity (kWh/m 2) and the use and age of buildings. The last two allowed the creation of six clusters in which to group buildings of similar occupancy patterns in four age categories from the 16th to the 21st century. The main findings reveal the predominance of an educational buildings cluster in terms of floor area (72%), number of buildings (70%), carbon emissions (68% of about 42,000 tons of CO 2), and energy consumption (61% of the 38.4 MWh of electricity consumed, and 73% of the 117.4 MWh of natural gas consumed). These levels of consumption highlight the energy saving potential for schools: 186 kWh/m2/year on average, in comparison with the European average of 100 kWh/m 2 /year for thermal end-use energy.

The uncertainty of refurbishment projects is reflected in the difficulty in getting accurate design information during the design process. One of the factors contributing to the
uncertainty in refurbishment projects is building legislation. The changing and updating some of the building regulations by government has also affected the approval process in refurbishment projects, especially projects related to onservation. The statutory requirements could cause project delays and cost overruns due to adjustments that need
to be made to design in order to comply with the regulations. Therefore, the main objectives of this paper are to present the difficulties that contributed to the uncertainty of building legislation and to show how it affects the overall performance of refurbishment projects. Quantitative research techniques are used, which consists of review of literature and a postal questionnaire survey that involved 234 respondents.
From 234 questionnaires sent out, 62 questionnaires were found to be suitable to form a database for analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics are used in the data analysis. The results conclude that complexity in refurbishment projects in Malaysia is made worse by uncertainty of building legislation. The associative test indicates that performance of refurbishment projects suffered from the uncertainty of building regulations.

Keywords:
Uncertainty, Building-Regulation, Refurbishment, Malaysia.

The existing building stock has been in the focus of European Union policies for energy savings. Nevertheless, energy certification schemes refer mostly to operational energy and usually do not consider aspects related to the life cycle of the building. To look at the overall energy cost during the lifespan of a building, the energy used to produce and assemble the building materials also needs to be included. This paper develops a design methodology for existing residential buildings that aims at decreasing the life cycle energy use as much as possible. This approach was applied on a case study of an existing post-war residential building in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The main focus of this study is to find a design solution for façade retrofitting that considers both embodied and operational energy. The design approach is based on comparing different strategies for the use of façade materials. This design methodology can be replicated in other projects, as the conclusions and recommendations can also be used for future refurbishment projects for which a low operational energy and materials with a low embodied energy are desired.