SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

In the SECURE Project the non-technological barriers, especially legal, financial, institutional and social issues will be dealt with. The goal is to find out why and how to overcome the distance to target of energy efficiency in the building sector. The aim of this work package is to identify and propose actions on how to overcome non-technological barriers that exist in creating more sustainable and energy efficient buildings in the target communities.

To assure an applied and action-oriented research and evaluation of the demonstration cases there has to be a mutual interest in sharing experiences on problem identification and analysis. One way of doing this is to use participatory techniques when communicating in form of qualitative interviews with key persons or group interviews in form of workshops. To assure a broad involvement of the users of the buildings without creating a too time consuming dialogue, a complement to the communication tools would be to use more quantitative methods such as questionnaires. Therefore a Methodology for identifying and overcoming non-technological barriers was created and is used by the project partners as a tool to assist the evaluation of the demonstration cases.

Download the Methodology for identifying and overcoming non-technological barriers (pdf, 79 kB)

Demonstration cases

A number of demonstration cases will be set up in the project, where at least 2 residential, 2 public and 2 industrial buildings per target community will be audited and reported. For the evaluation of the demonstration cases, as well as to feed information in to the EAPs, a best practice energy performance target will be defined by which the distance to target of the demonstration cases can be measured against, both initial and during the project period.  

Further information will be posted soon.   

Best practice

Best Practice will be defined from a benchmark of previous relevant national and European sustainable urban environment development projects and a definition of an operational “passive-house" concept for existing buildings. Both key indicators on energy performance and legal, financial, institutional and social barriers for failure or reason for success will be evaluated from at least 3 relevant urban projects and from state of the art concerning passive-house standard.  Focus for the benchmark study was on urban housing areas.

Ivana Kildsgaard from IVL commented for the third SECURE Newsletter about the progress of the study.
                                                                             Read more

here

Projects that were selected for the study are:

Housing with mixed developments:

a) Redevelopment of previously occupied city areas:

Bo01, Malmö ,Sweden (pdf, 210 kB) - previously shipyard area
Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm ,Sweden (pdf, 350 kB) — previously industrial area
PilestredetPark , Oslo ,Norway (pdf, 520 kB) — previously hospital area
Bedzed, Wallington, South London ,UK (pdf, 950 kB) — former brown-field area
Vauban, Freiburg ,Germany (pdf, 320 kB) — former military area
GreenwichMillenniumVillage , London ,UK (pdf, 260 kB)— former industrial site
Solar building exhibition, Hamburg-Heimfeld ,Germany (pdf, 350 kB) — former military site

b) Urban renewal projects, upgrading of existing building stock:
Solar buildings Gårdsten, Gothenburg ,Sweden (pdf, 350 kB)
Hedebygade, Copenhagen ,Denmark (pdf, 290 kB)
Ekostaden Augustenborg, Malmö ,Sweden (pdf, 830 kB)
GlastonburyHouse, Westminster ,UK (pdf, 140 kB)
Flagship Home, Westminster ,UK (pdf, 180 kB)

c) New city areas:
Viikki, Helsinki ,Finland (pdf, 220 kB) — eco-community project
Kronsberg, Hannover ,Germany (pdf, 490 kB)
Amersfoort, The Netherlands (pdf, 650 kB)— 1MW PV building integration of PV cells
Braamwisch Ecological Settlement, Hamburg ,Germany (pdf, 230 kB)

d) New buildings with special focus on energy performance of buildings:
Passive houses in Lindås ,Sweden (pdf, 660 kB)
Kvarteret Nornan, Landskrona ,Sweden (pdf, 180 kB)
Brachvogelweg, Hamburg-Lurup ,Germany (pdf, 320 kB)

Other types of developments:

Zicer building,UniversityofEast Anglia , Norwich ,UK (pdf, 380 kB)
Great Notley Country Park Discovery Centre ,UK (pdf, 360 kB)
UK SmartLIFE business and training centre, Cambridge ,UK (pdf, 180 kB)

The European Directive on energy performance of buildings (EPBD)

The EPBD will be the central communication platform for all stakeholders involved in the 24 demonstration cases. With the objective of the Directive to promote improvement of the energy performance of buildings within the Community this will be a common framework for all cities involved. As part of the work, international benchmarks in operation like the Australian-NSW BASIX certification system will be considered to make the Directive an operational tool within the project.  

Under the SECURE project a questionnaire was developed for reporting Energy Performance of Buildings, according to the requirements of the EPBD. It will be used for reporting energy performances of demonstration cases in each participating city. The document can be downloaded below.

Download the Energy Performance of Buildings - Questionnaire (pdf, 68 kB)