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Mobilization of innovative design tools for refurbishing of buildings at district level

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MODER (Mobilization of innovative design tools for refurbishing of buildings at district level)

Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2018-08-31

The main objective of MODER is to increase business of engineering companies, energy managers and consultants in supporting municipalities and building owners in European and global markets for the refurbishment of buildings at district level. To reach this objective requires exceeding barriers concerning the reduction of energy demand of buildings, new tools that enable the assessment and design of refurbishment and new business and process models for efficiently execute the refurbishment of buildings at district level.
To reach the total target of MODER, several technical improvements are required. Therefore, the overall technical objectives of MODER are to develop, demonstrate and mobilize tools, services, process models and business models, Figure 1.
The large-scale district level projects may face many types of barriers, Figure 2. The interviews with building professional gave one important barrier over the others: Presence of large number of building owners and other stakeholders. In many cases it is necessary to include an activator into the process to collect all the views and opinions from the stakeholders and to prove the possible benefits to different user and owner groups. An activator can be a person or a consultant.
The process and delivery models that were found applicable in a large-scale district level refurbishment project are alliance model, primary project model, Public/private-private partnership and distributed design build model.
Project alliance is a project delivery method based on a multi-party contract between the key players in a project whereby the parties assume joint responsibility for the design and construction of the project to be implemented through a joint organisation, Figure 3. The joint organisation includes the owner or client. The participants share both positive and negative risks related to the project and observe principles of openness in pursuing close cooperation.
The Primary Project Model PPM is a developed version of group refurbishment. The primary project differs from the group refurbishment by the initiation of the project. One strong building owner invites other owners to join the refurbishment. The aim is to increase the size of the project and to gain economic benefits.
In design-build (DB) the contractor is responsible for the refurbishment design.
The private finance initiative (PFI) is a procurement method which uses private sector investment to deliver public sector services according to a specification defined by the public sector. It is a sub-set of a broader procurement approach termed Public-Private Partnership (PPP), with the main defining characteristic being the use of project finance (using private sector debt and equity, underwritten by the public) in order to deliver the public services.
In Private-Private Partnership the project members may consist of several interest groups without a public partner. The delivery model consists of stakeholders establishing a company that takes the responsibility of the project. The suitability of these methods for district level refurbishment were assessed by studying pros and cons of the methods and considering the requirements set for a project with 13 different process and stakeholder related terms. Different co-creation methods for integrated design were included into the models. A simple project score card tool was developed for assessing the suitability of each method for the refurbishment of different types of districts. The delivery models, procurement strategy, co-creation methods and the project score card serve as the collaborative integrated project delivery method.
A district level refurbishment project requires thorough analysis for affordable and profitable outcome. The project developed Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for setting targets and assessment of outcomes, Figure 4. The KPIs are in for groups: Energy, environment, economy and Social performance. The social performance indicators gentrification and end user advantages describe how the refurbishment process may change the peoples’ possibilities to live and work in a certain area before and after refurbishment. Social profiling is one of the tools to assess the social changes in a district.
A district level refurbishment requires also adequate tools and methods for analysing the impacts on energy and environmental performance, Figure 5. The project developed dynamic energy simulation tools for decision-making and through analysis of both energy production and use. MODER District Energy Adviser MODER D-ECA is a tool for early face rapid assessment of possibilities for decision-making. The tool has now German, Slovenian, Latvian and Finnish versions.
APROS is a tool that was originally developed for power plant production process analysis. The project enhanced the tool for combined hourly simulation of energy production and use which enables optimisation of the energy production and analysis of impacts of various energy saving measures.
Energy System Design method ESD optimises energy production systems according to given criteria. The ESD makes it possible to analyse possibilities on the basis of CO2 emissions, system costs and primary energy use. The output is an optimised set of production methods.
GPR Real Estate is a decision- making tool for assessment of energy saving measures and how they impact on emissions at district level. The purpose of the tool is help to strengthen the political decision-making by giving alternatives for actions to reduce emissions.
Furthermore, a district level refurbishment requires scalable business models (Figure 6) for the process and delivery models as well as for different building professionals (Figure 7), finance and renewable energy providers. As design and construction are services for clients, the business models were analysed using service design methodology.
The project developed City Information Modelling CIM for a tool for visualisation of the district level refurbishment. A CIM is a 3D visualisation of an area with detailed information of the buildings and infrastructure, terrain and water bodies, vegetation an trees. A CIM can include necessary information of the building and the district for district energy simulation, making shadowing analysis for building integrated solar energy, and for a number of services for district development, Figure 8.
The project aimed at showing the possibilities of emission reduction by refurbishment of buildings at district level. A large district level has more impacts on the residents, businesses and users of a district compared to refurbishment of buildings one by one. At the same time a district level refurbishment offers more possibilities for optimisation of actions, e.g. it may be more profitable and environmentally friendly to concentrate on energy system optimisation and refurbishment than to refurbish all the buildings.
The project's results help for optimisation of actions. At the same time the results show ways to make sustainable business in a large-scale refurbishment. One of the key development areas was the impacts on residents. The project developed a set of key performance indicators for assessment of the intentended actions and the final outcome of the refurbuishment.