Timber-based construction, refurbishment and superelevation scenarios

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Methods, Processes, Support

DESCRIPTION:

Timber-based scenarios for new and existing buildings to enhance the use of wood as a circular construction-renovation material combined with forefront sustainable and energy saving technologies, nature-based solutions, and compound performance and comfort monitoring systems.

The first scenario is the construction of a new wooden-based positive energy building located in in an area currently used as a parking lot. The new building has been conceived as a multifunctional hub with integrated services.

The second scenario is the architectural renovation and energy refurbishment of existing buildings using timber. The scenario consists of testing the prefabricated wooden-based panel – called “Renew Wall” (RW), a modular system and wooden-based retrofit kit conceived to be easily applied on existing buildings.

BUSINESS ROUTE

Target Users

Constructors, Landlords, Local authorities, Real-estate developers, Research community, Social, public and cooperative housing providers

VALUE

Both scenarios offer an alternative to as-usual construction and renovation works and address the issue of environmental impacts of buildings. Timber-based interventions allow to exploit the advantages of off-site manufacturing, including the design and delivery of accurate and optimized structural components that only needs to be assembled and installed on site. Compared to business-as-usual solutions, this leads in principle to a reduced and more predictable construction/renovation time, combined with limited impact and inconvenience of works on end-users, such as building occupants, and the surrounding environment (i.e., use of scaffoldings, less noise and dust produced, etc.). Moreover, both scenarios enable to address sustainability in a comprehensive way, combining the well-known features of wood as a construction material (CO2 sequestration and storage) with optimized energy performance, thermal comfort, nature-based solutions, and RES integration – the latter in relation to the new building. Furthermore, the new building’s structure, which is based on square modules, enables long-term re-usability and possible redesign aspects. Modularity coupled with a flexible layout for the internal space of the building could prove a useful resource for future configurations of the hub and its functions and for adding new parts in both directions and in principle also in elevation.

APPLICATION

The scalability potential of the new building scenario comes from its modularity, allowing for adaptation to different urban environments, especially in tertiary and commercial areas. The testing of the innovative façades allows to compare different thermal and energy performances and to selected case-by-case the most appropriate solutions depending on the conditions, usage, and context of the installation. Scalability at a district level is also possible thanks to the Piedicastello regeneration plan recently approved by the Municipality of Trento for the northern side of the district, the so-called “Italcementi” brownfield. ARV activities could inform the design and construction of new buildings in that area, partially planned for commercial and tertiary activities. The refurbishment scenario has also good potential to be scaled at a district level, especially within residential areas including a high number of inefficient private and/or social housing buildings. This leverages offsite manufacturing and prefabrication to produce standardized and optimized wooden renovation kits on a large scale, taking advantage of the abovementioned ease of installation of wooden components. A combination of this sustainable solution with existing fiscal incentives for refurbishment could also encourage the increase of the renovation rate for buildings. As for the new timber construction scenario, the concept design that was prepared in early 2023 has been deeply developed and refined to reach the executive design phase of the construction project. In parallel, attention is paid to the urban regeneration developments of the “ex Italcementi” area in order to influence its regeneration process in the near future. The first large-scale installation of the “Renew Wall” system in the Povo district is completed. Scaling it up from a single building to the district level can leverage the One-Stop-Shop approach in Piedicastello to aggregate the demand and supply of sustainable renovation works. Indeed, the residential area of this district, made of medium-rise apartment buildings from the ‘60s-’70s, can be a potential replication area for larger renovation projects based on prefabricated components.