BUILD UP

This overview explores the concept of Architecture 4.0 and its relationship with digital information and communication technologies. It is important to emphasise that the digital transformation is characterised by a fusion of advanced technologies and the integration of physical and digital systems, the predominance of innovative business models and new processes, and the creation of smart products and services.

Every month, BUILD UP highlights publications covering a specific topic. October’s Topic of the Month is ‘Financing energy efficiency in buildings’. The website is already available for contributions and BUILD UP’s editorial board is eager to receive your discussion papers, news and articles.

The 8th edition of our Expert Talks feature hosts Armand Paardekooper Overman, associate architect at Mecanoo. He is also a founding partner of fUSE Architecture and, in 2014, he founded the real estate development company Urban Sync. He has extensive experience in realising spatial quality within the context of complex multi-stakeholder processes.

At a basic level, algorithms can be a powerful tool for providing exhaustive information for the design, construction and use of a building. Building information modelling uses comprehensive software to standardise and share data from across architecture, engineering and construction which used to be held separately.

The core idea behind living buildings was popularised by the International Living Future Institute. It is really about a building being regenerative – whether that means generating more energy than it uses, harvesting and treating water onsite, or diverting waste from landfill and reusing materials.

Sustainable Places is the only annual international conference focused on showcasing the results of EU projects on innovation for the built environment. The 8th edition, Sustainable Places 2020 (27-30 October 2020), will be held over four days in a virtual format to facilitate thematic presentations and fruitful discussion on topics such as the circular economy, digital twins, BIPV, local energy communities, sustainable digital infrastructure, etc.

The guide focuses on the key EU legislation aimed at transforming and decarbonising the European building stock. This includes an overview of the Clean Energy Package for all Europeans, a new Circular Economy Action Plan, and EU energy product policy.

Innovative designs, such as those featured in nearly zero-energy buildings, need to tackle life-cycle costs because reducing the impact of use can create other collateral and unexpected expenses. For example, it is interesting to include the evaluation of end-of-life costs by introducing future selective dismantling and waste management activities which also improve the environmental performance of the demolition project.

The building is a large multi-family house in a small quarter in the outskirts of Zaragoza. It has 53 dwellings available in two main sizes (i.e. 85 m² and 55 m²) situated on four floors accessed by five staircases. The building, which was constructed in 1988, is owned by Zaragoza Vivienda, the city’s social housing agency, to provide sheltered housing.

The newly constructed building in Krems an der Donau in Austria fulfils a dual function as an office and an educational institution. It is equipped with a reversible ground source heat pump providing warm and cold water for room heating and cooling, a compression chiller as a back-up system for cooling as well as several air handling units and a photovoltaic system on the building’s roof.

Digitisation in existing buildings is not as widespread as in other sectors. As a consequence, building owners and occupants generally have a limited understanding of their building as an energy system. Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings can and should be achieved through deep renovation.

Quad2BIM's mission is to promote smart heritage to turn BIM into a functional instrument of knowledge, design and management for historical architecture. It aims to define a new working protocol for building surveyors and BIM technicians, or rather a collaborative approach for issuing as-built parametric models efficiently integrated into the development design process of existing and historical buildings.

Funded under the EU's Horizon 2020 programme, the aim of ePANACEA is to develop a holistic methodology for energy performance assessment and building certification. The project’s vision is to become a relevant instrument in Europe’s energy transition through the building sector.

This project ambitiously aims to set the grounds for the next generation of dynamic energy performance certificates (EPCs) for buildings. The proposed framework sets its foundations on the smart-readiness level of the buildings and the corresponding data-collection infrastructure and management systems.

This sixth webinar focused on the CEN standards related to heating and domestic hot water systems developed under the EC Mandate M/480 and published in 2017. In the long term, the EU is pushing towards a change in the energy carriers and technologies applied to provide comfort services in buildings.

The webinar presented a European state-of-the-art analysis, examining just how digitalised the construction industry is and the possible points for knowledge transfer. Furthermore, experts in the field of architecture and digitalisation highlighted the need for the involvement of architects in the 4.0 revolution.

The MOBISTYLE dashboard is a tool that enables different kinds of users to receive information about the buildings they interact with, through specific authentication. Buildings connected to MOBISTYLE are sensorised by groups of sensors which have been installed according to the parameters suggested by experts to monitor and analyse.

The tool has been developed within the H2020 project CRAVEzero. Its scope is to provide a support to track and manage a nZEB project throughout the entire life cycle. The final result is a table that can be exported and saved in an Excel file, with all the selected actions, main descriptions and information inserted and a Gantt provided for the process.

The European Week of Regions and Cities is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to regional policy. The event has grown to become a unique communication and networking platform, bringing together regions and cities from all over Europe.

Be there when experts from the international refrigeration, air-conditioning and ventilation and heat pump community meet online! Experts from research and practice will share their knowledge during numerous lectures as part of Chillventa Congress and the official supporting programme.

This conference, organised by Smart Energy Systems ERA-Net, will bring together online a powerful impact network: funded projects, SET-Plan Action 4 contributors, associated partners and other partners for development and exploitation.

BEYOND 2020 embraces a global perspective that reaches across academia as well as private and public sectors. We will work together to develop concrete solutions and achievable implementation plans. These solutions will incorporate research, policy, finance, education and innovative thinking needed to create the resilient and sustainable built environments of tomorrow.