Refurbishment

mesoscale

Reuse versus replace. Retrofitting buildings is a key point when it comes to deal with existing cities. These strategies have clear advantages.
1. On the one hand, it can reduce construction costs in buildings design due to the reuse of existing structures, for instance.
2. On the other hand, it leads to lower CO2 emissions, not only because the production and transport of new materials is avoided, but also the emission during the demolition and the generation of waste on site.
3. In the case of historic buildings, retrofitting save them from abandon and decline, and achieves the reactivation of historic centers. It is the way to help to recover local identity.

Reusing implies the understanding of these urban realities, in order to carry out the optimization of the rehabilitation in terms of energy efficiency, especially if the intervention implies a change of use with respect to the original.
In this sense, our projects follow the EnerPHit methodology of the PassivHaus Institut. Vernacular.