The environmental impact of the European building stock is widely acknowledged. 40% of the overall energy consumption and 1/3 of CO2 emissions in Europe are related to building sector and more than 50% of all materials extracted from earth are transformed into construction materials. So, to meet the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol, it is necessary to concentrate on improving the energy-inefficient building stock increasing the current anual retrofitting rate of 1-2% (EPBD Recast Directive) up to 2,9% (BPIE). In addition, the EU in the Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan relies on the safeguarding and reuse of existing buildings and structures as key factor for the resource efficiency as well as the promotion of a stronger use of renewable resources like timber.
The use of prefabricated systems for the energy efficient building renovation allows the reduction of on-site works, minimizing the consumption of raw materials and increasing the energy and resource efficiency in the construction sector. In this context, timber and timber based building materials gain added importance due to their low primary energy demand from cradle to grave and carbon-footprints. In addition, a digital work flow of the information from design to manufacturing which is currently very manual, inaccurate and tedious will increase the efficiency of the renovation process, reducing the time and cost .
In this context, the approach of BERTIM to address these challenges is: to develop a timber based on prefabricated system for building deep energy efficient renovation, and integrated it in a holistic renovation process based on customized mass manufacturing methodologies supported by building information models (BIM). For this purpose, BERTIM is developing a prefabricated solution in timber, which provides the opportunity to renovate improving energy performance, air quality, aesthetics, comfort, and property value at the same time, while ensuring low intrusiveness during renovation works, as well as a friendly computer based tool (RenoBIM). The tool is based in a digital data flow in BIM, which enables reduction of renovation operation time and make more efficient the renovation process, through the customization of the mass production, from data gathering, designing, manufacturing and installation. Project developments will be validated in 3 complementary case studies of renovation in buildings across Europe.
