scholarly journals Valuation of Ecological Retrofitting Technology in Existing Buildings: A Real-World Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7001
Author(s):  
Domenico Enrico Massimo ◽  
Vincenzo Del Giudice ◽  
Alessandro Malerba ◽  
Carlo Bernardo ◽  
Mariangela Musolino ◽  
...  

The world’s existing buildings are aged, in a state of deterioration and in need of interventions. When selecting the type of possible intervention to be applied, the choice falls between two alternatives: simple unsustainable ordinary maintenance versus ecological retrofitting i.e., an increase in the quality of the indoor environment and building energy saving using local bio-natural materials and products. The present research seeks to respond to the requests of recent comprehensive reviews which ask for the retrofitting of the world’s huge existing building stocks and portfolios by proposing an approach and testing it in a specific case study (at the unit, building and urban block level) which can then be carried out and repeated in the future on a larger urban scale. The real-world experimentation in the provided case study achieved the important outcome and goal of a Green Building strategy and post-carbon city framework i.e., the significant enhancement of the thermal performance of the buildings as a result of a few targeted key external works and the consequent saving of energy in those already existing (but not preserved and not included in the state national register or record of monuments) Liberty-style constructions. All the above show that these important existing buildings can be ecologically retrofitted at an affordable cost, although initially slightly more expensive than the cost of ordinary unsustainable maintenance. However, this difference is offset by the favorable pay-back period, which is fast, acceptable and of short duration. The tried and tested approach, the positive proposed case study and the experimental database-GIS joint platform (the details of which can be found in an additional supplementary research which is currently being carried out) are the bases on which a future decision support system will be proposed. This support system can be carried out as a tailor- made solution for the ecological retrofitting of the enormous existing building stocks and portfolios which must be considered on a larger scale i.e., at ward, quartier, city, regional and country level.

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Mawed ◽  
Vinay Tilani ◽  
Karima Hamani

Purpose Green retrofitting is acknowledged as an essential strategy toward achieving long-term sustainability in the built environment. To implement this strategy successfully, the role of facility managers cannot be ignored. The purpose of this paper is to investigate present practices that are used in managing the existing facilities, to highlight the elements that govern the process of green retrofitting, and discuss the efforts and contribution of facility managers in enhancing the environmental performance of the existing facilities stock in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach This study suggests that an adequate level of awareness of the benefits of green retrofit amongst owners and decision-makers is mostly dependent on facilities management (FM) professionals, who must establish effective communication channel with senior management. FM professionals in the UAE are well equipped and competent in greening existing buildings and can simultaneously lead a building to the path of achieving green building certification. Findings To examine the role of FM in a green retrofit and its current status in the UAE built environment, a two-step qualitative method was adopted. The study started by conducting semi-structured interviews with FM professionals and then assessing the insights obtained from the interviews against an actual case study of a LEED Existing Building certified facility. Research limitations/implications Interviews were limited to FM professionals in the private sector and the results from one case study should be considered cautiously. Originality/value This paper emphasizes the primordial role of FM professionals in promoting green retrofit in the UAE.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoraya Roldán Rockow ◽  
Brandon E. Ross

PurposeThis paper aims to describe and demonstrate a quantitative areal openness model (AOM) for measuring the openness of floor plans. Creation of the model was motivated by the widely reported but rarely quantified link between openness and adaptability.Design/methodology/approachThe model calculates values for three indicators: openness score (OS), weighted OS (WOS) and openness potential (OP). OS measures the absence of obstructions (walls, chases, columns) that separate areas in a floor plan. WOS measures the number of obstructions while also accounting for the difficulty of removing them. OP measures the potential of a floor plan to become more open. Indicators were calculated for three demolished case study buildings and for three adapted buildings. The case study buildings were selected because openness – or lack thereof – contributed to the owners' decisions to demolish or adapt.FindingsOpenness indicators were consistent with the real-world outcomes (adaptation or demolition) of the case study buildings. This encouraging result suggests that the proposed model is a reasonable approach for comparing the openness of floor plans and evaluating them for possible adaptation or demolition.Originality/valueThe AOM is presented as a tool for facility managers to evaluate inventories of existing buildings, designers to compare alternative plan layouts and researchers to measure openness of case studies. It is intended to be sufficiently complex as to produce meaningful results, relatively simple to apply and readily modifiable to suit different situations. The model is the first to calculate floor plan openness within the context of adaptability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 705-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moatassem Abdallah ◽  
Boateng Akyeampong ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes

Existing buildings, especially aging ones, are currently in urgent need of upgrading to improve their performance and potentially achieve green certification. Building owners often need to identify and implement building upgrades that maximize the sustainability of their buildings as well as achieve green certification programs such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This paper presents the development of an optimization model that maximizes the number of earned LEED points for existing buildings within a specified upgrade budget. A case study of an existing building is used to demonstrate the use of the optimization model and illustrate its capabilities. This research presents new methodology for optimizing the selection of building upgrades to maximize the sustainability of existing buildings and achieve green certification within limited budgets. The present model is expected to support decision-makers, building owners and operators, building managers, and contractors to optimize the use of their upgrade budgets and maximize sustainability of their buildings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 03029
Author(s):  
Horia Petran ◽  
Szabolcs Varga ◽  
Noémi Fogas

The paper presents the preliminary planning of a demonstration pilot for exemplary renovation of an existing building (“Solar House 1 – Campina”) towards nZEB level using Passive House principles and technologies. The “Solar House” was one of the lighthouses of solar energy developments in the ‘80s in Romania, being built in 1977-1978 in Campina (Centre-South Romania) and represented an experimental building using innovative solar technologies for DHW preparation, active and passive space heating. The decision of transforming the existing building in a demonstration pilot nZEB with green materials was taken and the feasibility study is currently underway. The pilot aims to analyse and test, the cost effectiveness of Passive House (PH) technologies integration in a deep renovation process with the view to achieve the fixed nZEB levels, as an exemplary case study demonstrating the benefits and feasibility of applying PH principles and energy performance evaluation in real context. Both approaches of applying the renovation standard EnerPHit and targeting Passive House criteria are discussed together with the nZEB targets, while the analysis of technical (energy performance) and economic (total costs) feasibility is presented. The proposed building will act as a training and consultancy centre in Campina - created as a model for achieving greater energy efficiency and environmental responsibility in Romania.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 719
Author(s):  
Ali Amiri ◽  
Juudit Ottelin ◽  
Jaana Sorvari ◽  
Seppo Junnila

Buildings use 30–40% of all energy resources and are thus the main consumers in modern society. Moreover, buildings require a vast amount of different raw materials. During the last two decades, several green building certifications have been created in order to consider the social, economic, and environmental aspects of the sustainability of buildings. One of the most famous and widely used of these certifications is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). So far, the use of LEED has concentrated in the US and other developed countries. One reason that restricts the use of this point-based system certification in developing countries is the limited data about its costs. In this study, the extra cost of the certification process were evaluated, besides the changes needed in the design of the building to reach the points required by LEED. At the first stage, the number of points the case study earns in its current format (Scenario 1) were assessed, then the cost difference of getting either the Certified (Scenario 2) or Silver (Scenario 3) level LEED certification for the building was studied. It was found that besides some technical considerations, filling the criteria of the Certified and Silver level increases the total costs of construction by 3.4% and 5.9%, respectively. Further improvement of the building’s energy efficiency would enable the attainment of a higher-level certification. The results of the study could help to promote the use of green building certifications in Western Asia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Mustafidul Umam ◽  
Sugini Sugini

Green building is a concept as a response to global urban heat island problems, water pollution and ozone depletion. The concept of green building has been applied in various tools, none other than GBCI with six categories. This paper evaluates the La Cucina building in Seoul with the aim of knowing the extent to which GBCI is implemented outside the region as it should be and knowing the constraints and advantages of the rating tool. The method used is to make a La Cucina building simulation with Archicad software then evaluate the calculations with exel, velux and look for the building material literature and match it in the greenship tool. The results obtained in the existing building OTTV values ??and natural lighting have not reached the GBCI target, while for environmentally friendly materials and fabricated materials, they have not yet been fully achieved. Therefore, it was retested in accordance with the initial recommendations and results. The final results of OTTV, natural lighting, environmentally friendly materials and fabrication materials as expected and successful. The conclusion and recommendation of this paper is that OTTV can be achieved by measuring shading and replacing glass materials which have low Sc Glass and Uv values. While in lighting, 30% of the space on each floor has natural lighting. For environmentally friendly materials and fabricated materials, it has been achieved, evidenced by the material and fabrication certification from the factory. Keywords : Green Building, GBCI, OTTV, environmentally friendly materials, fabrication materials


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9462
Author(s):  
Annarita Ferrante ◽  
Anastasia Fotopoulou ◽  
Cecilia Mazzoli

The current main issue in the construction sector in Europe concerns the energy refurbishment and the reactivation of investments in existing buildings. Guidance for enhancing energy efficiency and encouraging member states to create a market for deep renovation is provided by a number of European policies. Innovative methods and strategies are required to attract and involve citizens and main stakeholders to undertake buildings’ renovation processes, which actually account for just 1% of the total building stock. This contribution proposes technical and financial solutions for the promotion of energy efficient, safe, and attractive retrofit interventions based on the creation of volumetric additions combined with renewable energy sources. This paper focuses on the urban reality of Athens as being an important example of a degraded urban center with a heavy heat island, a quite important heating demand, and a strong seismic vulnerability. The design solutions presented here demonstrate that the strategy of additions, because of the consequent increased value of the buildings, could represent an effective densification policy for the renovation of existing urban settings. Hence, the aim is to trigger regulatory and market reforms with the aim to boost the revolution towards nearly zero energy buildings for the existing building stocks.


2012 ◽  
Vol 178-181 ◽  
pp. 42-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rozana Binti Zakaria ◽  
Kian Seng Foo ◽  
Rosli Mohammad Zin ◽  
Jay Yang ◽  
Samaneh Zolfagharian

Green building is building that the focus is to maximize the energy efficiency and resources used. While, retrofitting is the process of renovate or refurnish the existing building. Therefore by retrofit existing buildings that comply with green building requirement, it improves the environmental attributes of the buildings. In Malaysia, existing buildings and its communities contribute over 40% of green house gases to the environment. This paper describes a study that explores the potential to retrofit existing campus buildings that response to sustainable green building standard. A validation survey was carried out and the data collected was analysed using SPSS in order to confirm the significance of retrofitting Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) buildings toward green building initiative. The results show that all the twenty eight identified green elements recorded average index of higher than 3.5 which means that there is significant needs to retrofit the existing buildings to green buildings. This study concludes that it is urgently need for the campus to response to green building requirements in order to achieve higher energy effeciency and this can be done through effective etrofitting of existing buildings.


Author(s):  
Rameez ut Tauheed ◽  
Ankit Chawla ◽  
Kartik Chauhan ◽  
Mohit Tewatia ◽  
Vishal Pandey

— Lately there has been a change in perspective in development ventures towards eco agreeable and manageable development and advancement. On account of which numerous structures are planned as eco cordial and reasonable called green structures by alteration of building materials and current innovation through which we will be equipped for diminishing harm to the nature. In the long run, the green structure manages the cost of a significant degree of financial and designing execution, which drives us to the improvement of group of people yet to come.


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