EcoREGEN: Integrated Design Protocol for the Refurbishment of Social Housing and Urban Regeneration (BIA2013-44001-R)

Principal Investigator: Belinda López Mesa
Programme: Spanish National R&D Programme for Societal Challenges (Type A project)
Funding body: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO)
Duration: 1 January 2014 – 31 December 2017

Summary:
The European Union has set Member States the challenge of adapting the existing building stock to meet new requirements aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Several reports indicate that transforming the current residential stock into low-energy buildings will benefit not only owners and occupants, but also the country—by generating employment—and the planet—by reducing environmental impacts.

Research shows that the housing stock should not be analysed solely from a physical or energy-related perspective, however important these aspects may be. Other factors and indicators must be considered, particularly the socio-economic vulnerability of the areas in which residential buildings are located, if effective policies for building rehabilitation and urban regeneration are to be implemented.

Social housing constitutes one of the most vulnerable segments of the built environment and is therefore the focus of this project. Based on the hypothesis that rehabilitating social housing requires an integrated design approach, the project addresses a major technical, socio-economic, and ecological challenge—the energy-efficient renovation of social housing—through a holistic framework that incorporates technical, socio-economic, cultural, formal, urban, and legal dimensions.

The project aimed to define an integrated design protocol covering the entire process: from identifying social housing groups in most urgent need of renovation (using mappable indicators), to developing technical and environmental proposals (energy, habitability, accessibility, acoustics, life-cycle assessment), and addressing formal, cultural, urbanistic, and legal considerations.

Project objectives:

1. To improve mappable indicators for prioritising residential buildings to be rehabilitated.

2. To study the most relevant technical and environmental considerations in the architectural rehabilitation of social housing.

3. To analyse formal and cultural aspects related to architectural rehabilitation and urban regeneration.

4. To examine how energy rehabilitation is addressed in urban planning and develop recommendations for future practice.

5. To define an integrated design protocol for the rehabilitation of social housing and urban regeneration.

Among the project's results is a book publication summarising its main findings, available for download at:
👉 https://catedrazaragozavivienda.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/00-libro-completo.pdf