Favorite Facades Reuse

Starting point / motivation

In Vienna, around 35,000 buildings, about a quarter of the main residential flats, were built between 1961 and 1980. Social housing buildings from this period are an essential backbone of the city's rental housing stock.

Across Austria, there are around three times as many buildings from this period. A typical construction element of this type of building is curtain wall façade elements made of exposed aggregate concrete panels or metal sheets.

The buildings are in urgent need of comprehensive thermal refurbishment, which must be efficient, affordable, technically feasible and scalable and, if possible, should be carried out without interfering with occupied rental units. These are the preconditions for speeding up the refurbishment ratio of dwellings for reaching urban decarbonisation goals.

State-of-the-Art: Currently, façade refurbishments are usually carried out using external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS) with EPS insulation. The existing façade elements made of exposed aggregate concrete or sheet metal are dismantled and disposed of together with the windows, which leads to environmental pollution through transport and waste disposal as well as the loss of resources of these valuable building materials that are suitable for further use.

Contents and goals

The exploratory project "Favorite Facade ReUse" aims to develop an innovative, technological solution for the renovation and thermal upgrading of curtain wall facades, which enables the continued use of existing facade elements and at the same time uses the facade construction in a new way for heating, greening and possibly as a design surface.

Building on the knowledge gained from individual reference projects, Favorite Facade ReUse has set itself the goal of developing an integrated overall concept for facade refurbishment for the first time.

In a new type of refurbishment strategy, individual measures are combined and optimised (reuse of façade elements, sustainable insulation, integrated surface heating, window upgrades and greening measures) and examined in analyses and simulations in order to achieve a high climate protection effect through the best possible resource savings and energy-efficient refurbishment. Compared to conventional façade refurbishments, CO2 savings in the order of 40% are expected.

Methods

The best practice research expands the field of possible solutions. Different refurbishment combinations are visualised and analysed. The evaluation is carried out with the support of practitioners - window fitters, stonemasons, plumbers - and specialist planners - statics, building services, building physics. The chosen method is tested, evaluated, modified if necessary and recorded in plans based on the dismantling of the real façade.

At the end of the project, the type of façade refurbishment is finalised and transferred to two other properties in the vicinity with the same building structure. In a workshop, property developers, institutions and owners with similar properties discuss the variants examined and the selected refurbishment strategy to promote recyclability, resource conservation and authenticity in the refurbishment.

Expected Results

For the subsequent demonstration of the exploratory results, GESIBA, a social housing developer - could be won as a project partner, which has over 40 identical properties of this type with more than 5,000 residential units and will renovate one of these properties as a demonstration case using the newly developed façade renovation strategy on the basis of the exploratory results.

Roll-Out: In view of the large number of residential buildings of this type, there is great potential for climate protection. The cooperation with GESIBA and an intensive transfer of knowledge will support rapid replication.

The re-use of the original façade elements will preserve the authenticity of the existing buildings, value the craftsmanship of the façade design and increase the attractiveness of the renovated existing buildings and neighbourhoods as living spaces in the climate-neutral city of the future.

Project management

Arch.in Mag.a Jutta Wörtl-Gössler, RfM Räume für Menschen Architektur

Project or cooperation partners

• Arch.in Mag.a Uli Machold, RfM Räume für Menschen Architektur
• TU Wien, Institut für Werkstofftechnologie
• IBO Institut für bauen und Ökologie
• Innovationslabor RENOWAVE.AT
• GESIBA Gemeinnützige Siedlungs- und Bauaktien GmbH

Arch.in Mag.a Jutta Wörtl-Gössler, RfM Räume für Menschen Architektur
Wolfganggasse 12, Werkstatt
A-1120 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (680) 122 60 81
E-mail: office@rfm-architektur.at
Web: www.rfm-architektur.at