SUSTAINABLE REFURBISHMENT

A four‑year European wide research programme looking at refurbishment of high-density housing aims to provide housing companies with practical tools for integrating sustainable development and tenant participation into their management of refurbishment, without in‑ creasing costs to tenants.

Sustainable Refurbishment in Europe (SUREURO) will further seek to develop design tools for city planners. construction companies, designers and engineers, and models for better planning, design and technical specifications of refurbishment projects. New and flexible technical concepts for the sustainable transformation of existing housing areas wilt also be tested and implemented.

There are about 80.000 residential areas and 56 million that was built after 1950 in EC member states. These house 170 million people. At present, refurbishment schemes tend to focus only on technical issues and initial costs; sustainability strategies are not included and there is too little tenant consultation.

Seven EC counties, including Britain, are participating in SUREUR0. As part o1 Britain's contribution, BRE will provide technical advice on management tools and will work closely with Sandwell Metropolitan District Council to monitor three, nine‑storey blocks of flats in Sandwell. One of these blocks has already undergone refurbishment, one will be refurbished during the monitoring period using lessons learned from preliminary work, and one will not be refurbished so it can be used as a control.

Information and experience gained in all member countries will be collated to formulate the SUREURO method. Subsequently to be applied to refurbishment projects in Italy and Czech Republic (Eastern Europe): and the results will form the final report at the end of the four-year programme.

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