Project details

Details

The EU’s building stock is relatively old. Half of all homes in most EU countries were built pre-1970 and before the first thermal regulations. This is why upgrading the energy efficiency of the building envelope – the physical barrier between indoor and unconditioned environment – is important. The EU-funded INFINITE project will pave the way for the decarbonisation of the EU building stock by facilitating the uptake of all-in-one industrialised envelope technologies by the market. INFINITE's approach for deep renovation of buildings will result in both cost and time reduction, with attention to the life cycle perspective and the design for assembly and disassembly, including end-of-life residual value as well as construction and demolition waste.

INFINITE aims at increasing the market penetration of industrialized all-in building envelope kits for the deep renovation, as competitive, reliable, stakeholders-accepted and life-cycle-based sustainable approach contributing to decarbonization of the EU building stock. INFINITE will work to narrow the gap towards the full adoption of an industrialized renovation approach developing a set of multi-user and multi-disciplinary tools, and all-in-one industrialised envelope technologies, based on robust business, meeting the demand side requirements, by keeping the focus on final users and all the stakeholders in the value-chain. The INFINITE development drivers are: (i) cost and timing reduction, (ii) Life Cycle perspective, (iii) design for assembly and disassembly, considering end-of-life residual value and the Construction-Demolition-Waste topics, (iv) low carbon impact materials adoption, (v) stakeholders-centered approach to assure concept acceptance. Moreover, INFINITE will setup an open structured knowledge hub and an organized network of entities as hard-facts based dissemination, for the demonstration of the coupling of digital and industrialised approach.

List of achievements

INFINITE will develop five all-in-one industrialised envelope kits, designed to cover near ZEB retrofit needs.

The concept consists in modular timber frames that can be easily installed on the external surface of the building to achieve a high-level of energy efficiency and indoor comfort, while reducing time and costs of renovation. Each module may integrate one or more technological components to offer tailor-made solutions. The range of technologies available includes:

• passive eco-compatible & green envelope solutions
• energy and fresh air distribution system
• smart windows (smart glazing)
• building integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV)
• solar-thermal generation system (BIST).

Contact

Contact person: Stefano Avesani
Address: Eurac Research
Tel:
email: infiniteproject@eurac.edu

Status

In progress