Renovation process challenges and barriers: addressing the communication and coordination bottlenecks in the zero-energy building renovation workflow in European residential buildings

ABSTRACT

The implementation of Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEB) renovation packages in Europe needs to be accelerated to meet the current decarbonization goals. To achieve this level of performance, building renovation strategies should shift towards solutions that incorporate a multitude of passive and active components, increasing the complexity and costs of the execution. Moreover, it requires the involvement of different stakeholders of the building supply-chain, resulting in additional difficulties in communication and coordination processes. To address this challenge, the present study aims at mapping the renovation process in digital platforms and addressing the respective bottlenecks. In terms of renovation process, several digital platforms were analysed to identify the type of information that the stakeholders require during the different renovation phases. By structuring the information along the renovation process phases, the different stakeholders can identify when the information can be provided and how the different type of information links to each other.

KEYWORDS:

• Building renovation process
• zero-energy buildings
• building stakeholders
• questionnaire
• information flow
• retrofitting
• digital technology

Acknowledgments

The framework presented in this paper it part of the development of a digital platform, as part of ENSNARE (ENvelope meSh aNd digitAl framework for building Renovation). The authors would like to thank the project participants and the questionnaire respondents.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions. It contains information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement ID 958445. This journal paper reflects only the authors’ views and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.