How the RINNO Platform is Unlocking Integrated Design for Europe’s Deep Energy Renovation

By Antonia Egli and Radhika Deorukhkar (Dublin City University) and edited by Theo Lynn, Pierangelo Rosati, Antonia Egli, Stelios Krinidis, Komninos Angelakoglou, Vasileios Sougkakis, Dimitrios Tzovaras, Mohamad Kassem, David Greenwood, and Omar Doukari

Why is renovating Europe’s buildings such an urgent priority?

Imagine an old, inefficient block of flats struggling to maintain heat and racking up enormous energy bills. This inefficiency is a massive climate problem. The existing building stock accounts for a huge 40% of the EU’s energy consumption and 36% of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With up to 75% of these buildings having poor energy performance, and most remaining in use past 2050, deep renovation is essential. However, complex projects are frequently “stymied” by human, technological, and organisational obstacles. The Horizon 2020 RINNO project is tackling this by developing an integrated deep renovation platform.

What research proposes to fix the renovation problem?

The paper “RINNO: Towards an Open Renovation Platform for Integrated Design and Delivery of Deep Renovation Projects” sets out the roadmap for an Open Renovation Platform designed to revolutionise how residential deep renovation projects are managed and delivered. The RINNO project is a Horizon 2020 initiative delivering a new system, repository, marketplace, and workflow process. The research addresses the core issue of a fragmented deep renovation value chain, which suffers from conflicting stakeholder motivations and a lack of integrated information. The goal is clear: to accelerate the rate of deep renovation in the EU by reducing the time, effort, and cost involved.

What are the core innovative ideas behind the RINNO platform?

The proposed platform is built upon seven design principles to overcome industry barriers. Here are four key insights:

• A Full-Lifecycle Perspective: Deep renovation is often opportunistic and focuses on short-term payback. RINNO mandates a comprehensive, full-lifecycle approach covering four phases: planning and design, retrofitting, operation and monitoring, and end-of-life. Economic modelling suggests this holistic approach results in substantial energy savings over the building’s lifetime.
• Designing for All Stakeholders: Renovations involve many parties like owners, contractors, engineers, and finance firms often with conflicting interests. The platform must meet all their needs. Crucially, it addresses the needs of occupiers, whose active participation is vital to achieving target energy savings, but whose requirements are often under-prioritised in current projects.
• Openness and Interoperability: The concept of “open renovation” means that data, processes, and functionalities are available in an ecosystem. This is powered by Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which allow different software systems (e.g., BIMs, smart devices) to communicate. This open system fosters a “virtuous circle” or network effect, attracting more innovation and users.
• Augmented Building Intelligence: To handle the immense complexity, volume, and variety of data, the platform integrates machine learning and other general algorithmic approaches. This “augmented building intelligence” uses data from buildings and users to provide dynamic decision support during planning and constantly optimise building performance during operation.

How do these digital findings affect European policy and everyday life?

The push for an Integrated Design and Delivery Solution (IDDS) is a direct response to a core problem: a lack of integration and poor management are the primary factors contributing to the failure or under-performance of deep renovation projects. The RINNO platform provides a single solution to simplify a chaotic process.

The project is vital for meeting the goals of the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. To achieve these targets, the EU building stock requires up to a 14% reduction in energy consumption and a 60% cut in GHG emissions. RINNO, a Horizon 2020 project, directly supports this effort.

The resulting benefits are broadly societal:

• Economic: Deep renovation acts as an economic stimulus, generating direct and indirect employment and contributing to GDP.
• Societal: It helps reduce fuel poverty, improves the health and quality of life of residents, and increases personal well-being.
• Environmental: It mitigates adverse environmental impacts through lower GHG emissions and reduced demolition and waste production.

By linking renovation plans with appropriate finance mechanisms, the platform tackles high upfront investment costs. This transforms a perceived financial barrier into a systematic, financially supported investment.

What is the key takeaway, and what are the next steps for the project?

The RINNO research provides a clear, necessary blueprint for moving the construction sector away from fragmented, short-term fixes toward an open, intelligent, and integrated design and delivery system. The system is transitioning from a conceptual roadmap to reality: the new open renovation software platform has been implemented and evaluated at pilot sites across Europe with differing climates, regulations, and markets. This crucial step tests the platform’s ability to create a greener, healthier, and more secure built environment for all.

Reference:

Lynn, T., Rosati, P., Egli, A., Krinidis, S., Angelakoglou, K., Sougkakis, V., Tzovaras, D., Kassem, M., Greenwood, D. and Doukari, O. (2021) ‘Rinno: Towards an open renovation platform for integrated design and delivery of deep renovation projects’, Sustainability, 13(11), p. 6018. doi:10.3390/su13116018.