Housing Information Modelling for BIM-embedded Housing Refurbishment

The aim of this research is to identify BIM input datasets within a BIM-embedded housing refurbishment process and enabling construction professionals to utilize BIM as an information management platform for housing refurbishment projects. A hypothetical case study using BIM tools for a housing refurbishment project is adopted to identify BIM input datasets to create a housing information model within a BIM system. Reliability of the research outcome is examined by conducting a comparative analysis between existing and simulated research outcomes. This research identifies essential BIM input datasets during the early design phase. The importance of a well-integrated housing information model containing accurate as-built condition, cost and thermal performance information is essential to utilize BIM for housing refurbishment. BIM can be feasible for housing refurbishment when an information enriched housing information model is constructed. Furthermore, the capability of BIM that can enable key project stakeholders to determine the most affordable refurbishment solution among various alternatives is identified since BIM can provide reliable cost estimations and thermal performance of refurbishment alternatives at the early design stage. The examined refurbishment processes and input datasets are confined to the early design phases since BIM use for housing refurbishment is limited. This research will contribute to utilize BIM for housing refurbishment by providing essential BIM input datasets and BIM-embedded refurbishment processes. This research reveals primary housing information datasets and BIM-embedded refurbishment processes at the early design phase

Achieving Low Carbon Social Housing Through Innovation

Achieving a low carbon future continues to be one of the most challenging issues facing today’s built environment professionals. While significant advances have been made in the area of new build, the same cannot be said for the existing housing stock. In the UK 70% of the housing that will exist in 2050 has already been built. If the UK is to have any chance of meeting its 2050 carbon reduction targets, effective refurbishment strategies that significantly reduce the carbon footprint of existing housing need to be developed. However, whilst it is generally acknowledged that retrofit to existing buildings is more complicated than new build, the issues that need to be addressed are not primarily technical, but organisational and managerial. The combination of attitudes towards risk and awareness of innovative solutions result in organisational barriers to the wide uptake of low/zero carbon technologies. This paper presents the findings of a research study into the level of perceived organisational sustainability and factors that influence refurbishment decision making amongst 57 UK social housing providers. It identifies a range of maturity indicators from Initiation, through Contagion and Control, to Maturity that can be used to distinguish between approaches to sustainable refurbishment. A research questionnaire was used to establish the level of maturity (in the sustainability innovation context) and decision making characteristics of the responding organisation along with their experiences of sustainable refurbishment of their housing stock. The paper identifies a range of organisational characteristics and maps these against the organisation’s position along a “general” innovation journey through an S curve maturity model. The paper identifies a shift from national level drivers and barriers to local level interpretation of the wider sustainability agenda as the key differences between Initiator and Mature organisations. The paper concludes that it is possible to profile UK social housing providers and develop management instruments to accelerate their journey along the sustainable innovation curve. This in turn will accelerate the uptake of sustainable refurbishment programmes

Delivering Value for Money with BIM-embedded Housing Refurbishment

The aim of this research is to examine if BIM is feasible as an information management platform to determine a financially and environmentally affordable housing refurbishment solution based on the LCC and LCC calculation. A case study in conjunction with BIM simulation approach using BIM tools (Autodesk Revit and IES VE/IMPACT) was adopted to identify the feasibility of BIM for the simultaneous formulation of LCC and LCA in housing refurbishment. This research reveals that BIM is a suitable for the information management platform to enable construction professionals to consider trade-off relationship between LCC and LCA simultaneously, and determine the most financially and environmentally affordable refurbishment solution. The interoperability issues in data exchange among different BIM tools and unstandardized BIM object libraries with incomplete datasets of construction materials are recognized as the major shortcomings in a BIM system. Essential remedial actions to overcome the shortcomings in the current BIM tools are identified. Actual housing information and various refurbishment materials for the BIM simulation are limited. This research contribute to supporting construction professionals to prepare practical BIM adoption for the integration of the LCC and LCA that can significantly improve early decision makings on sustainable housing refurbishment. This research will contribute to providing proper remedial actions to overcome the shortcomings in the current BIM tools, and insights for construction professionals to understand the implication of BIM-embedded housing refurbishment

Conceptual Building Information Modelling Framework for Whole‐house Refurbishment based on LCC and LCA

The UK government aims at achieving 80% CO2 emission reduction by 2050 which requires collective efforts across all the UK industry sectors. In particular, the housing sector has a large potential to contribute to achieving the aim because the housing sector alone accounts for 27% of the total UK CO2 emission, and furthermore, 87% of the housing which is responsible for current 27% CO2 emission will still stand in 2050. Therefore, it is essential to improve energy efficiency of existing housing stock built with low energy efficiency standard. In order for this, a whole‐house needs to be refurbished in a sustainable way by considering the life time financial and environmental impacts of a refurbished house. However, the current refurbishment process seems to be challenging to generate a financially and environmentally affordable refurbishment solution due to the highly fragmented nature of refurbishment practice and a lack of knowledge and skills about whole‐house refurbishment in the construction industry. In order to generate an affordable refurbishment solution, diverse information regarding costs and environmental impacts of refurbishment measures and materials should be collected and integrated in right sequences throughout the refurbishment project life cycle among key project stakeholders. Consequently, various researchers increasingly study a way of utilizing Building Information Modelling (BIM) to tackle current problems in the construction industry because BIM can support construction professionals to manage construction projects in a collaborative manner by integrating diverse information, and to determine the best refurbishment solution among various alternatives by calculating the life cycle costs and lifetime CO2 performance of a refurbishment solution. Despite the capability of BIM, the BIM adoption rate is low with 25% in the housing sector and it has been rarely studied about a way of using BIM for housing refurbishment projects. Therefore, this research aims to develop a BIM framework to formulate a financially and environmentally affordable whole‐house refurbishment solution based on the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods simultaneously. In order to achieve the aim, a BIM feasibility study was conducted as a pilot study to examine whether BIM is suitable for housing refurbishment, and a BIM framework was developed based on the grounded theory because there was no precedent research. After the development of a BIM framework, this framework was examined by a hypothetical case study using BIM input data collected from questionnaire survey regarding homeowners’ preferences for housing refurbishment. Finally, validation of the BIM framework was conducted among academics and professionals by providing the BIM framework and a formulated refurbishment solution based on the LCC and LCA studies through the framework. As a result, BIM was identified as suitable for housing refurbishment as a management tool, and it is timely for developing the BIM framework. The BIM framework with seven project stages was developed to formulate an affordable refurbishment solution. Through the case study, the Building Regulation is identified as the most affordable energy efficiency standard which renders the best LCC and LCA results when it is applied for whole‐house refurbishment solution. In addition, the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES) is recommended when customers are willing to adopt high energy standard, and the maximum 60% of CO2 emissions can be reduced through whole‐house fabric refurbishment with the FEES. Furthermore, limitations and challenges to fully utilize BIM framework for housing refurbishment were revealed such as a lack of BIM objects with proper cost and environmental information, limited interoperability between different BIM software and limited information of LCC and LCA datasets in BIM system. Finally, the BIM framework was validated as suitable for housing refurbishment projects, and reviewers commented that the framework can be more practical if a specific BIM library for housing refurbishment with proper LCC and LCA datasets is developed. This research is expected to provide a systematic way of formulating a refurbishment solution using BIM, and to become a basis for further research on BIM for the housing sector to resolve the current limitations and challenges. Future research should enhance the BIM framework by developing more detailed process map and develop BIM objects with proper LCC and LCA Information

Essential BIM input data study for housing refurbishment:Homeowners' preferences in the UK

Construction customers are persistently seeking to achieve sustainability and maximize value as sustainability has become a major consideration in the construction industry. In particular, it is essential to refurbish a whole house to achieve the sustainability agenda of 80% CO2 reduction by 2050 as the housing sector accounts for 28% of the total UK CO2 emission. However, whole house refurbishment seems to be challenging due to the highly fragmented nature of construction practice, which makes the integration of diverse information throughout the project lifecycle difficult. Consequently, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore in order to manage construction projects in a collaborative manner, although the current uptake of the housing sector is low at 25%. This research aims to investigate homeowners' decision making factors for housing refurbishment projects and to provide a valuable dataset as an essential input to BIM for such projects. One-hundred and twelve homeowners and 39 construction professionals involved in UK housing refurbishment were surveyed. It was revealed that homeowners value initial cost more while construction professionals value thermal performance. The results supported that homeowners and professionals both considered the first priority to be roof refurbishment. This research revealed that BIM requires a proper BIM dataset and objects for housing refurbishment

Tracking the energy refurbishment processes in residential building stocks. The pilot case of Piedmont region.

The objective of the IEE-EPISCOPE project is to make the energy refurbishment processes in the European housing sector more transparent and effective. Each participating country is developing a pilot action, aiming at tracking the refurbishment progress of housing stocks at different scales. In the present article, the monitoring of the Piedmont regional housing stock is concerned. A preliminary analysis on data sources is performed, to identify the current state of the stock and the refurbishment rates. The results are a basis to carry out energy performance calculations and to assess future refurbishment scenarios and quantify the energy saving potentials

Using Fussy Analytic Network Process to Explore the Factors of Performance Housing Refurbishment in Taiwan

Housing policy is one of the major public policies in Taiwan. Since 2006 the cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung have been busy with housing refurbishment as part of the urban policies. However, as for the Kaohsiung housing refurbishment projects, the initial result was somewhat disappointing. Only one out of the twelve applicants who applied for housing refurbishment was subsidized in Kaohsiung; the required subsidy rate for Taipei was also low, 38%. This paper focuses on the performance analysis of the housing refurbishment policy. This paper will use the FANP method to find the factors that could influenced the performance of the housing refurbishment. Through empirical analysis, it was found that the success of the housing refurbishment projects are heavily affected by the factors of economic benefit and policy deliverables. We believed that the proper promotion of house refurbishment subsidy, the transparency of information can consolidate the implementation of house refurbishment policy

Making Decisions on the Demolition or Refurbishment of Social Housing

This policy briefing summarises the main factors involved when deciding whether to refurbish or demolish social housing, including environmental and economic costs and benefits. Such decisions will involve trade-offs between different objectives and values. The briefing discusses: • evaluating the economic case for refurbishment, including impacts on communities and residents; • the energy and carbon implications of demolition compared to refurbishment; • issues around water and waste; and • social factors in housing and regeneration, including health and community participation

Adoption of Retrofit Strategies for the Housing Sector in Northern Cyprus

This research project is undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C.). The study focuses on identifying refurbishment activities capable of diagnosing and detecting the underlying problems alongside the challenges offered by the buildings’ typology in addition to identifying the correct construction materials in the refurbishment process, which allow for the maximisation of expected energy savings. The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity by exploring how and why occupants decide to change building components and how to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient measurements. The housing estates are chosen from 22 different projects in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. that include urban and suburban areas. There is, therefore, a broad representation of the common drivers in the property market, each with different levels of refurbishment activity and this is coupled with different samplings from different climatic regions within the country. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. This paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 22 housing estates in five different parts of the T.R.N.C. Alongside the construction process and its impact on the environment, the results point out the need for control mechanisms in the housing sector to promote and support the adoption of retrofit strategies and to minimize non-controlled refurbishment activities, in line with diagnostic information of the selected buildings. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible, given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders