Sustainable refurbishment: quantifying the impact of façade changes in multi-storey, multi-occupancy buildings

Bahaj, A.S., James, P.A.B., Jentsch, M.F., Clements-Croome, D.J., Chen, Z., Wu, S., Liu, K., Noy, P., Jones, K., Cooper, J. and Kaluarachchi, Y. (2006) Sustainable refurbishment: quantifying the impact of façade changes in multi-storey, multi-occupancy buildings. In: World Renewable Energy Congress IX and Exhibition, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.

Abstract/Summary

Building refurbishment is key to reducing the carbon footprint and improving comfort in the built environment. However, quantifying the real benefit of a facade change, which can bring advantages to owners (value), occupants (comfort) and the society (sustainability), is not a simple task. At a building physics level, the changes in kWh per m2 of heating / cooling load can be readily quantified. However, there are many subtle layers of operation and mainte-nance below these headline figures which determine how sustainable a building is in reality, such as for example quality of life factors. This paper considers the range of approached taken by a fa/e refurbishment consortium to assess refurbishment solutions for multi-storey, multi-occupancy buildings and how to critically evaluate them. Each of the applued tools spans one or more of the three building parameters of people, product and process. 'De-cision making' analytical network process and parametric building analysis tools are described and their potential impact on the building refurbishment process evaluated.