Project R-5956

Innovative Holistic Renovation Concepts for Sustainable Dwellings (InHoReCo) (Research)

In the overall aim to move towards a more sustainable built environment, renovation is a crucial issue. This research contributes to the important challenge of sustainable renovation. The contribution is two-fold. On the one hand, a method will be developed to assess the sustainability of renovation measures. On the other hand, innovative renovation concepts will be searched for residential buildings that are representative for the Belgian housing stock. For the selected cases, several renovation proposals will be developed through research by design. Their environmental and financial performance as well as their social performance will be assessed from a life cycle perspective. These social aspects include amongst others the identification of positive and negative driving forces for households in their decision process on renovation at different life stages. Both personal and societal issues will be dealt with such as comfort and wellbeing, environmental awareness, risk aversion, lifestyle, demographic situation, juridical barriers, planning regulations, ... . The renovation alternatives will be cross-compared and compared to the non-renovated dwelling and to demolition and new-built. The research will hence provide insight in renovation opportunities and barriers for dwellings which are broadly present in Belgium and in the potential to move towards a more sustainable dwelling stock through renovation.

01 January 2015 - 30 June 2021