Understanding Refurbishment, Renovation and Retrofit
In current practice, refurbishment is often used interchangeably with renovation.
Renovation is a term widely used to express a range of construction activities related to interventions onto existing buildings. They range from simple repairs and maintenance, restricted to replacement or repair of defective components, to adaptive conversion and reuse, which affect the load-bearing structure and interior layout. Giebeler (2009) places renovation works close to maintenance and cosmetic repairs that do not add new components.
On the other hand, refurbishment refers to defective or outdated parts, components or surfaces being repaired or replaced, with no major changes in the load-bearing structure (Giebeler et al., 2009). The upgrade of fire protection, acoustics, and thermal performance can be achieved through the building’s refurbishment. Additionally, during the refurbishment, buildings can be retrofitted with technologies for energy generation from renewable sources. Retrofits are defined as the strengthening, upgrading, or fitting of extra equipment to a building once the building is completed (Gorse et al., 2012). In this sense, refurbishment and retrofits are very similar as activities, as they both address replacing and upgrading building components.
In the context of circularity, refurbishment is a relevant term, as a strategy for prolonging a product’s life-span, while the term renovation is widely used in the building industry and policy documents, particularly with regards the energy transition. It is considered to encompass measures that refurbish or retrofit building components.
When is refurbishment the right strategy for prolonging a product’s life span? How does the refurbishment of building components relate to circularity and to energy transition?
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Main Takeaways
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To be determined
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To be determined
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Can we say that selecting to renovate a building is by itself circular?
Renovation is by definition extending the life-cycle of a building, so in essence complied with the circularity principle. However, in the process of extending the buildings’ life-cycle, the different components might end up as demolition waste. we should make sure to renovate in a way that we enable end-of-life applications for the components.
Hey Thaleia, I was wondering, how can we safeguard the materials available after a renovation? Are there any policies/specific practices currently at place?
Hi Thaleia, a renovation also creates a good opportunity to make an inventory and evaluation of the different components in the building. This can help assess reuse potential of components that might have to be removed but also supports some life cycle management. What is the remaining lifetime of components that will stay in place? Which repair and maintenance needs will the different building layers have in the years after the renovation? This will facilitate further service-life extension in the future.
In practice renovation is not always perceived as circularity aspect. For example the costs of maintaining or repairing materials often exceed the replacement of these with new ones and therefor decision makers d renovation as a term in practice is not coherent with that of academia. How do we address this?
Definitions in context
I find relevant the discussion about terms and definitions.
I believe that the discussion should be upfront contextual in a specific environment.
Product designers, urbanists, even architects could have a different frame of understanding.
Let’s declare which one is ours.
I agree, the important thing is that we have a clear understanding and we are consistent in what design decisions a strategy entails
What is the difference between refurbishment and renovation?
these are two terms that are used a lot in practice, also in the discussion for circularity and energy transition. it is useful to be clear about the action it each contains, so we can relate to the design decisions
Renovation is not part of the R-strategies
When is refurbishment the right strategy for prolonging a product’s life span?
When shall we select refurbishment between the r-strategies? We should think of the lifespan of the building/assembly/component that we need to upgrade. Are there parts that are still functional?