WOP - Restoration of residential buildings in passive house quality, Linz, Austria

Status

completed

Summary

The pilot scheme for restoration of the residential buildings Weinheberstraße 3/5/7/9 in Linz implements not only energetic and ecological aspects but also economical concerns of property developers. Basically this project does not deal with new developments of single components, but it is focused on new standards of complete restoration of buildings, that actually can be applied.

The innovation of this project is the development of energy related strategies to spread integral concepts of restoration with a high market potential and the implementation in a pilot project.

Object of the pilot scheme is a group of 4 apartment buildings with a total of 32 flats. To make the refurbishment economically interesting for the developer, the thermal restoration of the envelope is developed under consideration of the government subsidies of the country Upper Austria, with the aim to get highest aid for this project. The decision making is based on the energy saving of an implemented action compared to the necessary investment costs.

Inevitable is the installation of comfort ventilation. The advantages are on the one hand the reduction of generation of mould and the improvement of the indoor air quality, on the other hand the additional energy saving with heat recovery, which is required for the highest government aid. The installation of ventilation equipment while people keep living in their flats brings out an outstanding challenge and is a new approach for comfort ventilation and heat recovery.

To avoid difficulties of implementation due to lack of knowledge, the inhabitants are involved in the process of development. Special presentations of experts explain the advantages of comfort ventilation and they prepare them for the contact with this technology.

The ecological analyses of different alternatives of restorations are carried out with balances of life cycles of single materials, whereas the economical initiation of a building material constitutes additional criteria to the aspects of building biology.

An outstanding quality assurance supports the planning and processing whereby inter alia measurements of air tightness and thermo graphic examinations before and after the restoration are carried out.

Different intentions are analysed and confronted in the phase of project planning. After completion of the design process the implementation of the pilot scheme starts immediately and it is finished within a few months.

The result is an implemented strategy of restoration that serves the quality standards of a new building with the use of ecological building materials and most modern mechanical services at highest energy efficiency. The implementation of the concept with utilisation of the highest possible government aid is no financial burden for the developer and also for the user. With the compilation of this pilot scheme following implementations are possible without additional costs in the design process therefore high market diffusion can be estimated.

Contact

Mag. arch. Andreas Prehal
Bahnhofstr. 2
4400 Steyr
Tel: +43 7252 70157
Fax: +43 7252 70157 4
Email: office.steyr@poppeprehal.at
Internet: www.poppeprehal.at