Advancing sustainable maintenance and repair measures for existing buildings

Prolonging the lifespan and improving the performance of existing buildings are among key strategies to decrease new construction rates, which will help reduce the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing of new construction products, generating less waste and thus reducing GHG emissions and contributing to a more sustainable built environment. Recent legal and policy developments such as the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) reinforce the importance of preserving and upgrading existing buildings as part of Europe’s climate and circular economy[[See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.]] objectives. However, maintenance and repair intervention are often reactive, which can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of environmental sustainability. They can also take time, be costly and disruptive for the building’s users and inhabitants as they can cause noise and air pollution, utility interruptions, or temporary unavailability of rooms or services. There is therefore a need to develop solutions allowing the efficient, sustainable, timely, and high-quality maintenance and repair of existing buildings to extend their lifespan.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Develop at least one prospective LCA-based decision-support tool for predictive maintenance and repair of existing buildings.
• Develop at least one package of maintenance and repair measures to extend the estimated service life of existing buildings, which:
  • Integrates circularity principles, is environmentally sustainable and financially feasible over the remaining life cycle of building(s);
  • Involves building’s inhabitants, users and owners in the design and implementation of maintenance and repair measures;
  • Complies with European and national regulatory requirements;
  • Minimises disruption for building inhabitants or users in terms of noise and duration of the works.
• Demonstrate these solutions (both the decision-support tool(s) and the package(s) of measures) on three buildings, including at least one heritage building and at least one social and affordable housing project[[This topic also considers social care homes, elderly houses, and other form of inclusive housing with residential function complemented with social welfare as forms of social and affordable housing.]], located in three different Member States and/or Associated Countries.
• Explore the potential for a wide-spread application of predictive maintenance applied to existing buildings, identify barriers that hinder the implementation of predictive maintenance on existing buildings, and propose solutions to overcome them.

Proposals are expected to follow a participatory[[See definition of “participatory process” in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.]] and transdisciplinary approach[[See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.]] through the integration of different actors and disciplines.

This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH)[[See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.]] disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Proposals are expected to allocate at least 0.8% of their budget for engaging with the Horizon Europe-funded 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact' to share their intermediate and final results, findings and learning, as well as to contribute to impact assessment.