U-ROBUST · Upscaling deep renovation of residential buildings using socio-technical approaches

The current approach to renovation is falling short to meet the decarbonisation goals set for the EU building stock by 2050. Building renovation is as a complex technical process wherein occupants are a source of uncertainty and not well integrated in the process from the beginning. This leads to performance gap in design, segregated production and construction processes, inadequate social benefits and lack of integration, and weak technological success in practice. Renovation is not approached by the construction industry with socio-technical considerations, which remain unexplored and thus important to investigate for increasing deep renovation performance giving a long-term purpose and value to its end-users. The proposed research investigates the relationships of social aspects such as user behaviour, end-use, living, and socio-spatial characteristics with deep renovation measures (technologies and building systems) and processes (design, planning and construction). The role of socio-technical approaches will be evaluated in deep renovation using existing theories, co-creation methods and quantification techniques. The overarching research objectives are to:•investigate the capabilities and limitations of socio-technical interactions in deep-renovation •formulate a socio-technical framework for enhancing occupant interaction •validate the developed framework using socially driven scenarios The project will involve mixed-method research towards holistic deep renovation and develop a socio-technical framework with KPIs to be used in decision-making by industry stakeholders. It will focus on the aspects of co-creation, greater outreach and dissemination in practice to push to deep renovation in the EU. This project will be completed in a leading multi-disciplinary research group and draw on applicant’s experiences and competencies in (i) energy efficiency and renovation, (ii) stakeholder engagement, and (iii) practice and education in architecture.