Abstract

The operational phase of a building project has increasingly gained importance with their energy performance becoming valuable and determining their operational excellence. In most heritage building projects (HBPs), the operational energy use aspects are less considered, and a systematic way of analyzing their energy performance following project delivery is often lacking. The aim of this study is to evaluate the operational performance of refurbishment and reuse of UK listed church projects. The objective is to assess the operational energy use with a view to optimizing their sustainable performance. The methodology includes eight selected case study buildings refurbished and converted for multipurpose use. The case study approach provided qualitative insights into how the study contributes to a more structured requirements for energy management in HBPs with specific attention to energy-efficient building operations. The findings show the need to focus on fundamental areas of operational management (i.e. by developing and implementing more focused policy on operational energy performance of heritage buildings) to minimize the energy required to operate them. The challenges of implementing changes in operational energy performance improvement of heritage buildings are addressed in the form of recommendations that could lead to real results. The study concludes that leveraging these areas requires commitment from all heritage building stakeholders because they all have substantial roles in harmonizing the requirement for the project׳s sustainability and not just the building operators. Meanwhile, baseline project planning, periodic updating, monitoring, and managing the energy use pattern are suggested as measures that could greatly facilitate better energy performance to optimizing their sustainable reuse compared with the traditional approach of trying to improve their thermal performance.

Abstract

The main objective of the paper at hand is to investigate material flows and stock changes of subway infrastructure associated with its refurbishment. Specific attention is given to the relation between recycling, reuse and virgin material flows. Furthermore, the extent to which policy targets are achieved in a specific refurbishment process is investigated. Thereto the refurbishment of a subsection of Vienna’s subway network was chosen as a case study. To fulfil the objective, a bottom up material flow analysis (MFA) of the refurbishment process on the subsection was performed. Results show that the overall material stock is 360,000 t, of which three-fourths remained unchanged within the refurbishment. Within the refurbishment process, in total material with a mass of around 155,000 t was built into the system. The share of recycling material was significantly higher than the use of virgin material. In detail 39% virgin construction material, 15% recycling construction material, 41% on site-recycling construction material and 5% reuse construction components were built into the section.