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Net-Zero Retrofit of the Building Stock

Net-Zero Retrofit of the Building Stock

How might the building stock transition towards net zero? How big a change is achievable? What factors determine both the overall potential as well as the transition process?

This special issue explores how the building stock might transition towards net zero, and what key theoretical and practical factors are going to determine the overall potential and shape the transition process. Papers address both the technical and socio-economic questions around retrofit potential, exploring the drivers and barriers to greater uptake of retrofits, and how policy, knowledge-sharing and more concerted engagement between stakeholders could be used to improve the rate of uptake needed to meet the long-term emissions reduction targets.

Guest editors: Daniel Godoy-Shimizu and Philip Steadman

Despite a wide range of academic backgrounds, timeframes, geographical contexts, and types and scales of retrofits, common threads arise in this special issue. These include the need for consistent long-term policy, with a greater focus on public engagement and a collaborative approach across stakeholders, and increased provision of reliable, open, consistent advice based on trustworthy data.

Taken as a whole, these papers illustrate what a monumental task it will be to turn the long-term building retrofit goals from ambitious words into successful actions. Tripling energy retrofits and on-site renewables by 2030, as well as reducing demand and improving performance, will require increased collaboration across a wide range of institutions and disciplines. Given the scale of the task, the issues raised in this special issue will all need to be addressed, through research, policy and practice, in order to efficiently transition the global built environment towards net zero.

Urban stock models have primarily focused on evaluating the energy or emissions pathways towards net zero, often treating occupant behaviour using simple, fixed assumptions or rules. Instead, the challenges for research, policy and practice will be to engage with the complex dynamics that influence how building users choose to install retrofits, for example, or modelling how public engagement might work and change over time.

Table of Contents

Net-zero retrofit of the building stock [editorial]
D. Godoy-Shimizu & P. Steadman

Local area energy mapping approach for high-density heat pump deployment
R. Gupta, M. Gregg & C. Liu

HVAC characterisation of existing Canadian buildings for decarbonisation retrofit identification
J. Adebisi & J. J. McArthur

A systemic decision-making model for energy retrofits
C. Schünemann, M. Dshemuchadse & S. Scherbaum

Market transformations: gas conversion as a blueprint for net zero retrofit
A. Gillich

Beyond the building: governance challenges in social housing retrofit
H. Charles

Learning to sail a building: a people-first approach to retrofit
B. Bordass, R. Pender, K. Steele & A. Graham

A strategic niche management framework to scale deep energy retrofits
T. H. King & M. Jemtrud

Preserving buildings: emission reductions from circular economy strategies in Austria
N. Alaux, V. Kulmer, J. Vogel & A. Passer

Implementing and operating net zero buildings in South Africa
R. Terblanche, C. May & J. Steward


Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Net zero retrofit of the building stock [editorial]
D Godoy-Shimizu & P Steadman

Co-learning in living labs: nurturing civic agency and resilience
A Belfield

The importance of multi-roles and code-switching in living labs
H Noller & A Tarik

Researchers’ shifting roles in living labs for knowledge co-production
C-C Dobre & G Faldi

Increasing civic resilience in urban living labs: city authorities’ roles
E Alatalo, M Laine & M Kyrönviita

Co-curation as civic practice in community engagement
Z Li, M Sunikka-Blank, R Purohit & F Samuel

Preserving buildings: emission reductions from circular economy strategies in Austria
N Alaux, V Kulmer, J Vogel & A Passer

Urban living labs: relationality between institutions and local circularity
P Palo, M Adelfio, J Lundin & E Brandão

Living labs: epistemic modelling, temporariness and land value
J Clossick, T Khonsari & U Steven

Co-creating interventions to prevent mosquito-borne disease transmission in hospitals
O Sloan Wood, E Lupenza, D M Agnello, J B Knudsen, M Msellem, K L Schiøler & F Saleh

Circularity at the neighbourhood scale: co-creative living lab lessons
J Honsa, A Versele, T Van de Kerckhove & C Piccardo

Positive energy districts and energy communities: how living labs create value
E Malakhatka, O Shafqat, A Sandoff & L Thuvander

Built environment governance and professionalism: the end of laissez-faire (again)
S Foxell

Co-creating justice in housing energy transitions through energy living labs
D Ricci, C Leiwakabessy, S van Wieringen, P de Koning & T Konstantinou

HVAC characterisation of existing Canadian buildings for decarbonisation retrofit identification
J Adebisi & J J McArthur

Simulation and the building performance gap [editorial]
M Donn

Developing criteria for effective building-sector commitments in nationally determined contributions
P Graham, K McFarlane & M Taheri

Reimagining circularity: actions for optimising the use of existing buildings
R Lundgren, R Kyrö, S Toivonen & L Tähtinen

Effective interdisciplinary stakeholder engagement in net zero building design
S Vakeva-Baird, F Tahmasebi, JJ Williams & D Mumovic

Metrics for building component disassembly potential: a practical framework
H Järvelä, A Lehto, T Pirilä & M Kuittinen

The unfitness of dwellings: why spatial and conceptual boundaries matter
E Nisonen, D Milián Bernal & S Pelsmakers

Environmental variables and air quality: implications for planning and public health
H Itzhak-Ben-Shalom, T Saroglou, V Multanen, A Vanunu, A Karnieli, D Katoshevski, N Davidovitch & I A Meir

Exploring diverse drivers behind hybrid heating solutions
S Kilpeläinen, S Pelsmakers, R Castaño-Rosa & M-S Miettinen

Urban rooms and the expanded ecology of urban living labs
E Akbil & C Butterworth

Living with extreme heat: perceptions and experiences
L King & C Demski

A systemic decision-making model for energy retrofits
C Schünemann, M Dshemuchadse & S Scherbaum

Modelling site-specific outdoor temperature for buildings in urban environments
K Cebrat, J Narożny, M Baborska-Narożny & M Smektała

Understanding shading through home-use experience, measurement and modelling
M Baborska-Narożny, K Bandurski, & M Grudzińska

Building performance simulation for sensemaking in architectural pedagogy
M Bohm

Beyond the building: governance challenges in social housing retrofit
H Charles

Heat stress in social housing districts: tree cover–built form interaction
C Lopez-Ordoñez, E Garcia-Nevado, H Coch & M Morganti

An observational analysis of shade-related pedestrian activity
M Levenson, D Pearlmutter & O Aleksandrowicz

Learning to sail a building: a people-first approach to retrofit
B Bordass, R Pender, K Steele & A Graham

Market transformations: gas conversion as a blueprint for net zero retrofit
A Gillich

Resistance against zero-emission neighbourhood infrastructuring: key lessons from Norway
T Berker & R Woods

Megatrends and weak signals shaping future real estate
S Toivonen

A strategic niche management framework to scale deep energy retrofits
T H King & M Jemtrud

Generative AI: reconfiguring supervision and doctoral research
P Boyd & D Harding

Exploring interactions between shading and view using visual difference prediction
S Wasilewski & M Andersen

How urban green infrastructure contributes to carbon neutrality [briefing note]
R Hautamäki, L Kulmala, M Ariluoma & L Järvi

Implementing and operating net zero buildings in South Africa
R Terblanche, C May & J Steward

Quantifying inter-dwelling air exchanges during fan pressurisation tests
D Glew, F Thomas, D Miles-Shenton & J Parker

Western Asian and Northern African residential building stocks: archetype analysis
S Akin, A Eghbali, C Nwagwu & E Hertwich

See all peer reviewed articles

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