ECO-Transformation - Energy transformation through community building, sufficiency and serial solutions using the example of the "Cottage District"

Starting point / motivation

The Cottage District is a historic Viennese villa neighbourhood comprising 620 buildings. The neighbourhood is designated as a protected zone and some of the buildings are under a preservation order. The district's heating is supplied by gas - typical for historic existing buildings - and a transition to district heating is not possible due to the lack of a district heating network.

Achieving the climate targets and managing the energy transition requires the building stock to be converted to renewable energy sources. One of the technical neighbourhood solutions for a renewable heating system is an anergy network.

However, the implementation of cross-neighbourhood measures also requires social interaction of the owners, which can be a very complex task. The organizational and time-consuming aspects of a renovation also often serve as a deterrent. This is the problem that the project addresses.

Contents and goals

The innovation goal is to implement a transformation process towards a climate-neutral neighbourhood. As part of the exploratory project, serially applicable solutions are being developed using the example of the Cottage District, which should also be applicable beyond the neighbourhood for typical historic single and multi-family houses. Technical and environmental-psychological expertise will be involved from the beginning, joint thinking and an interlinked approach will be developed.

The content and goals can be summarised as followed:

• Development of a transdisciplinary planning approach that utilises sufficiency potentials and compares usage requirements on the one hand and the structural conditions with corresponding renovation requirements on the other.
• Transdisciplinary approach to promote and accelerate social behaviour to switch to renewable systems: psychological consideration of owners' motives, obstacles and incentives with regard to refurbishment and the switch to renewable systems and development of a communication strategy for the benefits of a joint implementation of measures.
• Neighbourhood development with community building, based on individual building solutions.
• Development of a serial implementation concept to minimize the effort and burden for owners when implementing measures and to organise the processes efficiently and intelligently.

Methods

The goal is a transformation process towards a climate-neutral neighbourhood using the following transdisciplinary methods:

1. sufficiency potentials
   Identifying the optimum between sufficiency, energy efficiency and costs (e.g. are 10 days/year below 20°C acceptable?). Examination of typical building layouts with regard to changes of use (e.g. is a bedroom in the north possible?).
2. community building
   Strengthening the social spirit of the neighbourhood and creating awareness that a joint solution strategy for the climate-neutral transition of the energy system makes more sense than an individual one. The advantages of joint realisation include, for example, more cost-effective and faster implementation. Role model effect in the sense of the early adopter principle.
3. serial implementation concept
   Development of a serial implementation concept to minimize economic and time expenditure as well as burdens (e.g. dust, dirt, noise) for owners. Lean management is used to organize processes efficiently and thus avoid waste.

Expected results

Development of a transformation process towards a climate-neutral, energy-efficient district, with serial applicability of the results for typical historic single and multi-family houses.

Project management

indigo development holding gmbh

Project or cooperation partners

• LeanWorks GmbH
• Ehmayer-Rosinak Cornelia Friederike Dr.
• Schöberl & Pöll GmbH
• sima consulting GmbH

DI Peter Nageler
Lederergasse 22/16
A-1080 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (1) 93 46 315
E-mail: nageler@teamindigo.eu
Web: www.teamindigo.eu