EURECA: Effectively Upscaling the Renovation of Envelopes with a Circular Approach

Flanders has around 1.4 million apartments, more than half of them must be renovated in the short or medium term. To accelerate the renovation of outdated buildings, an integrated solution is necessary for the renovation of apartment buildings. Often, renovation is postponed resulting in high energy consumption and poor comfort for the inhabitants.

EURECA will develop a circular façade system for renovation that is scalable and allows a fast renovation of existing buildings. The façade renovation system will be modular and reusable making it applicable to a wide range of buildings. A solution will be sought to integrate existing window frames – for example when they already have been renewed – and integration of technical installations (e.g. ventilation tubes). This will enhance the flexibility of the interior space for future adjustments.

The system will be tested on three case studies: a typical apartment building from '60, an apartment building from a social housing company and a student home from Ghent University. Bureau Bouwtechniek, Algemene Bouw Maes nv, De Witte Aluminiumconstructies nv and Ghent University are partners in this research project, that will continue for two years

Project Info

Research group: Building Physics
Start date: 2019
Researchers: Marijke Steeman, Lisa Van Gulck and Nathan Van Den Bossche