A BIM based tool for evaluating building renovation strategies: the case of three demonstration sites in different European countries

Purpose Buildings are among the biggest contributors to environmental impacts. To achieve energy-saving and decarbonisation objectives while also improving living conditions, it is imperative to undertake large-scale renovations of existing buildings, which constitute the greater part of building stock and have relatively low energy efficiency. However, building renovation projects poses significant challenges owing to the absence of optimised tools and methods for planning and executing renovation works, coupled with the need for a high degree of interaction with occupants. Design/methodology/approach This paper describes the development of an automated process, based on building information modelling (BIM) and the principal component analysis method, for overcoming building renovation challenges. The process involves the assessment and simulation of renovation scenarios in terms of duration, cost, effort needed and disruptive potential. The proposed process was tested in three case studies; multi-residence apartment buildings comprising different construction components and systems, located in Greece, France and Denmark, on which six different renovation strategies were evaluated using sensitivity analysis. Findings The developed tool was successfully able to model and simulate the six renovation scenarios across the three demonstration sites. The ability to simulate various renovation scenarios for a given project can help to strategise renovation interventions based on selected key performance indicators as well as their correlation at two different levels: the building level and the renovated surface area level. Originality/value The objectives of this paper are twofold: firstly, to present an automated process, using BIM, for evaluating and comparing renovation scenarios in terms of duration, cost, workers needed and disruptive potential; next, to show the subsequent testing of the process and the analysis of its applicability and behaviour when applied on three live demonstration sites located in three different European countries (France, Greece and Denmark), involving six renovation scenarios.