The “D2P” Approach: Digitalisation, Production and Performance in the Standardised Sustainable Deep Renovation of Buildings

Abstract

The carbon neutrality of the built environment plays a key role in fighting the climate crisis and fully realising ecological transition. In this field, the aim of the paper is to promote a new production paradigm that enables an integrated process from the design phase to the production of high-performance building components, to their “tailor-made installation” for the efficiency enhancement of the national residential building stock, reducing resource consumptions, costs, construction time and the associated environmental impact. The methodological approach is based on three key elements: digitalisation, production and performance. Recent technologies make it possible to achieve important goals, through the creation of the digital cataloguing of existing buildings, advanced dynamic simulations, improved energy performance for building stock and industrial production chain optimisation of the construction sector according to off-site construction criteria. This strategy was tested on a demonstrator building. The methodology application has made it possible to validate a catalogue of standardised insulation solutions that can be applied to 90% of the existing national building stock and that can reduce installation times by 60% and costs by around 30% compared to traditional techniques, while complying with the national requirements on thermal building insulation. The study is able to organise production according to advanced standardisation in order to meet the real demand of the market with advantages in term of production costs and economies of scale.