A review of the barriers for building renovation has revealed a lack of methodologies, which can promote sustainability objectives and assist various stakeholders during the design stage of building renovation/retrofitting projects. The purpose of this paper is to develop a Holistic Multi-methodology for Sustainable Renovation, which aims to deal with complexity of renovation projects. It provides a framework through which to involve the different stakeholders in the design process to improve group learning and group decision-making, and hence make the building renovation design process more robust and efficient. Therefore, the paper discusses the essence of multifaceted barriers in building renovation regarding cultural changes and technological/physical changes. The outcome is a proposal for a multi-methodology framework, which is developed by introducing, evaluating and mixing methods from Soft Systems Methodologies (SSM) with Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). The potential of applying the proposed methodology in renovation projects is demonstrated through a case study.

The paper explores potentials for increasing residents' wellbeing in multi-family social housing (MSH) undergoing energy renovation. The renovation measures needed to reach national and global climate goals are often not financially feasible when viewed in isolation. Therefore, it is relevant to identify potentials for added value, which can justify more extensive measures. This paper is based on the hypothesis that every renovation project holds potentials for added value in terms of increased resident wellbeing. Further, that it is crucial to extend current understandings of wellbeing beyond single, quantitative wellbeing parameters in order to promote more holistic, long-term sustainable renovation solutions. The paper sheds light on potentials for increased resident wellbeing based on an analysis of residents’ experience and satisfaction with gestures in the existing built environment and comparing these findings to their perceived health. The analysis is based on data collected through a mixed-methods approach in three MSH areas facing extensive renovation. The findings demonstrate and exemplify that energy renovation measures may influence a number of interrelated physiological, mental and social wellbeing aspects across scales. As such, the paper contributes with new insights, which can help promote previously neglected aspects of resident wellbeing in future energy renovation design processes.

There is an urgent need for updating the energy performance of the existing social housing stock. One can argue, however, that renovation is only a truly sustainable solution if the building continues to provide quality dwellings for the people who inhabit it. As such, energy optimisation and attention to contemporary needs for dwelling go hand in hand. Nevertheless, existing research has identified an emphasis on technical, quantifiable values in contemporary renovation practice. The paper investigates if a circular tectonic approach to energy renovation can help articulate and assess to what degree the specific strategies for altering the construction serve to increase not only the energy efficiency of the building, but also the quality of living. The framework is exemplified through the case of a competition entry in Gellerup, Denmark. In closing, the paper discusses methodological challenges as well as perspectives for further development for use in interdisciplinary project teams.

Exploring blind spots in collaborative value creation in building design: A creativity perspectiveDefining, developing, and delivering value is critical in integrated design processes (IDP) in building design and its two core design disciplines, architectural design and engineering design. Even so, how values emerge--the creation part itself--is underexposed. Using the seminal four p model from creativity research (person, process, product, and press) as an analytical lens, the paper explores blind spots in two building design cases that we as architects and researchers in creativity and engineering design have been involved in. On this basis, the paper contributes a four-leaf clover model of potential blind spots in collaborative value creation in building design. The model is comprised of value exploration, value negotiation, value formulation, and value manifestation.Design researchers can use the model as a scaffold for new design value theory, and design practitioners can employ it as an instrument to better navigate collaborative building design processes with multiple stakeholders, whose individual value sets may not always be clearly articulated and hence may sometimes collide.