BIM4Ren is a Horizon 2020-funded project involving 23 partners from 10 different countries aiming to explore the topic of the use of BIM for the energy renovation of existing buildings, in particular at the initial stage of a renovation, when key decisions need to be made, and can be supported by a newly created BIM model.
The quality of our built environment strongly affects human well-being as a whole in social and environmental but also economic sense. Nevertheless, about 75% of existing buildings are not energy-efficient, only 11% of the EU building stock undergoes yearly maintenance or renovation and a meagre 0.6% undergoes deep renovation that is aimed at reducing energy consumption.
The European Commission published a new strategy in 2020 aiming at boosting renovation by doubling its rate, and the digitalization of the building sector is referred to as a key enabler for the renovation wave.
To reflect on the 4 years of work on BIM4Ren, the consortium has produced a whitepaper that illustrates the potential of using BIM for energy-efficient renovation.
First, the whitepaper presents the overall context: the need to improve the renovation of the building stock in Europe as well as the challenges and benefits that come with BIM adoption. Secondly, the methodologies and tools developed in the project are detailed, following the three phases covered by BIM4Ren:
- data collection through buildings digitalization;
- data management through model enrichment;
- data-driven design by comparison and selection of renovation scenarios based on a BIM model.
Finally, the experiments run on the projects' pilot sites are explained, with a list of feedback, mistakes to avoid and main benefits.
The Whitepaper is freely available through this link.
