BUILD UP

Every month, BUILD UP highlights publications covering a specific topic. The topic of the month for September is ‘Architecture and Construction 4.0’. Our editorial board is eager to receive your discussion papers, news, and articles. Become a contributor!

How can digitalisation and industrialisation accelerate deep renovation in the building industry? Prefabricated technologies have theoretically high potentials, but stakeholders are still sceptical in adopting them. More and more projects are now proving that these technologies can lead to many advantages in terms of time and costs.

To support the adoption of the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), a better understanding of its implications needs to be promoted. This technical article presents technical solution packages, as developed within the H2020 SmartBuilt4EU project, which is complemented by an infographic on this subject.

Across Europe, the installed heating appliance stock is generally fairly old, with around 60% of the heating appliances being rated within the lowest two classes of the energy label scale. An energy labelling methodology for old appliances has been developed to rate appliances that were installed before the introduction of the EU energy label.

During the interview, García Audi answers questions about the main objectives of the Energy Performance Certification (EPC) scheme for buildings and the planning of the European Commission to raise end-users awareness.

During this interview, Hogeling answers questions about the role of the EPB centre and the main advantages and challenges of implementing Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) in EU member states. For his part, Kranzl answers questions related to the X-tendo project, such as "What are the main X-tendo toolbox indicators?" and "How will the X-tendo outputs be further implemented?"

This short article points to some of the events of interest to the BUILD UP community during the Sustainable Energy Week 2022, so that interested parties do not miss out on any details!

According to Quentin de Hults, the Director of the Green and Healthy Buildings programme at the European Copper Institute, it is important to boost the energy efficiency potential of technical building systems in order to address the energy and climate crisis. This should be taken into account in the recast of the EPBD. How can heat recovery in domestic hot water systems be improved? What about the electrical installations?

Digitalisation and Energy Performance Certification (EPC) support the EU Renovation Wave. Three projects (QualDeEPC, CrossCERT and MATRYCS) present their recommendations and tools during the FEDARENE General Assemblies.

To sell or rent homes in the UK, it is mandatory to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). How can you make homes more energy efficient and thus save on the energy bills? There are several steps you can take. Properties with higher energy efficiency rating are generally more attractive to prospective buyers or tenants.

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €2.98 billion German scheme to promote green district heating, based on renewable energy and waste heat. The measure will contribute to the implementation of Germany‘s National Energy and Climate Plan and to the EU's strategic objectives relating to the EU Green Deal, in particular the EU's 2050 climate neutrality target.

The Level(s) eLearning programme can help professionals who would like to know more about Level(s) assessment for the life cycle of a building project. The course is divided into several modules, and it targets the diverse roles and responsibilities based on all kinds of building professionals.

The final report by ELISE (Energy and Location Applications) addresses the need to improve energy efficiency of the building stock. In order to do so, they highlight the need to develop standardised calculation methodologies and interoperable building data to perform energy simulations.

This case study presents an example of a residential building in timber frame and certified as meeting the Passive House standard. Read more about this great project to learn about the envelope, the mechanical systems, and PHPP values.

This learning centre is an excellent case of sustainable and energy efficient construction, certified to Passive House standard. The hub is a prefabricated timber module with low impact building materials, a Passivhaus certified mechanical ventilation system, and it generates onsite most of the energy that it consumes.

The EENVEST project has released the second of a series of illustrative videos about the project. Gabriele Fregonese, from SINLOC, talks about what investors should expect from this particular type of investment and how EENVEST KPIs can help.

HumanTech is a ground-breaking initiative that proposes to use human-centred technologies to advance the European construction industry — increasing the safety and wellbeing of its workforce, improving its productivity, and making it greener and more resource-efficient.

The two teams, their guest speakers and colleagues from the Next Gen EPCs cluster, came together on 6 July for the 2022 event on Energy Performance Certificates. The programme told the story of these H2020 research and innovation projects, highlighting main results and preparing the ground for the exploitation of the outputs, both at the EU and national levels. This event, powered by BPIE & REHVA, was livestreamed via the BuildUp Portal.

The EU-funded EQUBUILD project presents novel architectural design strategies for enhancing societal equality in cities: an interdisciplinary case study approach to Swedish public buildings.

Hosted by the BUILD UP portal, this webinar focused on energy labelling for existing heating appliances. It featured presentations from the HARP project, explaining the methodology HARP developed and how this can be implemented in the future.

How to make the right decision when you need to change your heating system? This calculation tool, developed within the REPLACE project, can help you to objectively compare heating systems for your building over the entire operating life. The resulting actual costs and environmental energy performance can support your final decision.

Whether you are a project owner, designer, contractor, entrepreneur or member of a design office, GRO can be suitable for your new constructions, renovations and redevelopment projects of existing buildings. GRO is a holistic and relevant tool that can be used at any stage of the design process to establish the level of sustainable and circular ambition of a project. This article is written in French.

Sustainable Places 2022 arrives in Nice (France) from the 6th to the 9th of September. Each year, Sustainable Places is open to all topics related to building sustainability and most often reflect priorities of the European Commission. Register and join the two plenary sessions (on the 6th & 7th). BUILD UP will attend and cover the conference as a partner. Stay tuned!

The European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is the biggest annual event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. This comprises a series of activities aimed at building a secure energy future for Europe.

Opengela is exporting! The Opengela home renovation service has grown in influence, not only in the rest of the Basque Country with new ‘district offices’ in other municipalities, but also in different European countries via its replication programme that started in September 2021.

At this event, the challenges, and solutions of the foreseen changes in the recast EPBD for local authorities will be highlighted, especially shedding a light on what role EPCs play in building renovation and how municipalities could turn them into powerful tools.