The embryo of SUREURO started in the south of Sweden, in a municipal housing company called Kalmarhem, based in Kalmar. An area called Inspektoren with 159 flats in five threestorey houses, built during the 50`s housing rush, needed refurbishment. 

Discussions about refurbishment started in 1994. A great interest in environmental considerations was shown in the early stages from the municipality as well as from the inhabitants.

The overall goal for the refurbishment process that started in 1995 was to create sustainable solutions and to increase the tenants’ influence in their living environment. The cost for the refurbishment should not lead to increased rents or prolonged re-letting, compared to “normal” refurbishment projects. 

The total living environment, external and internal, was involved in the project, which started with the design and construction of three master flats with various levels of refurbishment.

All partners involved, including the tenants, now started to evaluate the results while considering costs, ecological issues etc, in order to see which flats, and what level of refurbishment each inhabitant wanted to have and pay for.

The refurbishment of Inspektoren was finished in 1997, but thoughts and discussions about a new way of thinking had started - how to make a refurbishment project sustainable in a wider sense.  

The management of Kalmarhem and the municipality of Kalmar, together with local experts, started to discuss how they could continue the process and use all the experience which was accumulated during the “Inspektoren-project”.

The thought of a large research project in Europe was born, based on the concept of sustainable refurbishment. 

There were and are a lot of problems to be solved. Traditionally, there is not enough integration between important players in a refurbishment proc­ess, such as housing managers, architects, consultants, technicians and especially the tenants. 

Most refurbishment processes focus mainly on technical issues and initial costs and the durability of the houses. SUREURO aims to achieve a balance between financial, social and environmental objectives and priorities as well. Then real sustainability in a wider sense can be achieved. 

In Europe, people are facing the fact that there are about 80 000 residential areas and 56 million flats that have been built since 1950. About 170 million people live in post-war housing areas. The need for refurbishment was and is enormous. 

Eleven other pilot projects from eight countries, fourteen research facilities, one sub-national authority, three consultancy companies and one construction firm from different parts of Europe were to follow. 

The interest in these issues was great and 1 March 2000, a large research project, SUREURO, partly EU funded within the 5^th Framework, City of Tomorrow, was launched.