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

Abstract

Future building renovation concerns more holistic perspectives related to the sustainability seen in a wider range of objectives/criteria facilitated by the renovation scenarios. Renovation should be a means of improving and developing buildings to meet the needs and challenges of the future and of making homeowners and tenants less vulnerable due to rising energy costs in the future. There is a great potential for reducing energy consumption in existing buildings. However, that does not mean compromising on the quality and architectural values that make the buildings special. Therefore, existing buildings cannot simply be renovated, but must undergo a deep transformation to comply with wider range of objectives/criteria. That includes and addresses the "hard" objectives/criteria (quantitative/measurable criteria such as energy consumption or energy generation) and the "soft" objectives/criteria (qualitative/immeasurable criteria such as spatial quality) in parallel. These objectives both can be achieved, if holistic renovation scenarios are generated each time the buildings are renovated by focus on addressing both the mentioned objectives/criteria. In this framework, the major difference between a deep building renovation and an ordinary one is a commitment to a holistic approach in which objectives/criteria are targeted early in the design stages and subsequently are considered for their interdependence throughout sustainability perspectives.A review of recent research has revealed that the present efforts on sustainable objectives fulfilment in renovation projects are not sufficient. It demonstrates compounding the typical challenges of a sustainable retrofitting from theory to implement stages is lack of an appropriate design methodology. It should take into account retrofitting projects initially in order to interact with the different stakeholders and then to embark on the sustainability objectives/criteria in its full sense. It should assist to identify, manage, and evaluate the holistic objectives among various alternative retrofitting solutions during the early design stages. In this perspective, the present thesis has been developed according to the following objectives: a) It primarily considers building renovation as a complex messy/wicked problem. As such, it gives details on how combinations of methods that are parts of SSM (Soft Systems Methodologies) and MCDM (Multi Criteria Decision Making Methods) are able to cope with its complexity. It consequently develops a methodology, which is entitled Holistic Multi-methodology for Building Renovation -HMSR. The HMSR serve as a means to structure retrofitting problems in accordance with the sustainability in its full sense to support the decision-making and help to develop most appropriate retrofitting scenarios. b) It addresses a new simplified holistic sustainability decision-making support framework, which applies to the structures of the built environment for building renovation projects. The developed framework can be applied during differe...

Holistic renovation of historic and heritage buildings: comparing New Zealand and international scenarios

“…Furthermore, all the documents highlight the importance of balanced solutions that consider aspects of physical compatibility and the possibility of renewable energy on-site or off-site (ASHRAE, 2019;CEN, 2017;de Santoli et al, 2014;Kamari, 2018). It is also recommended that the use of tailored simulation as a tool of analysis that would consider the users' behaviour (ASHRAE, 2019;de Santoli et al, 2014;Kamari, 2018).…”

“…The last two criteria presented are users and others, which are considered sometimes as implicit (or not fully described) criteria in these eight documents. For example, RE-VALUE explicitly considers the user's knowledge and education of the existing building as a criterion, as this could lead to an added value (Kamari, 2018). Others projects, such as EFFESUS, mention the importance of users but do not clearly describe how to consider them on the assessments.…”

“…A holistic renovation of historic buildings has benefits beyond reducing energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. It can also increase the building's utility value and quality, ensure its continued use and maintenance and improve the indoor environment (Kamari, 2018). The holistic concept reinforces the aims of social, economic and environmental sustainable development.…”

“…The European existing building stock represents around 40% of energy use for heating and operating equipment and 36% of CO 2 emissionsthe continent's largest energy consumer (European Commission, 2014;Kamari, 2018). Since historic buildings represent a major part of this existing building stock, they also have become important targets for reducing global warming and climate change (Webb, 2017).…”

Modeling and Estimating Host Country Values in International Projects to Facilitate In-Country Value Creation

“…They were derived from the DSMs but permitted to link elements of different natures [116][117][118]. DMMs were, in particular, used in recent works to estimate value creation in different contexts when the value could be described as a set of indicators related to multiple domains [119][120][121]. They, therefore, seemed particularly adapted to modeling the project ICV creation process.…”