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CALL FOR PAPERS: special issue

Retrofitting at scale:accelerating capabilities for domestic building stocks
Guest Editors: Faye Wade (U of Edinburgh) and Henk Visscher (TU Delft)

Deadline for abstract submission: 13 July 2020
This special issue explores the accelerated delivery of domestic energy retrofitting at different scales – national, municipal,
neighbourhood and individual sites. It will interrogate governance, economic / business, organisational, social and technicalaspects and their interactions: existing planning capabilities; available building stock data and what more is needed; rural andurban retrofit strategies; the roles, capabilities and capacities of existing and new actors / enterprises in delivering retrofit(e.g. local authorities, urban planners, construction professionals, contractors and subcontractors); how can renovation
elements be produced in an industrialised way to increase capacity and reduce costs; the economic, social, political,legislative, regulatory aspects of delivery models; what owners or inhabitants require; forms of user engagement; what futureproofing is appropriate; what requirements and guarantees will ensure performance in use. There will be insights acrossdifferent scales and geographical contexts as well as top-down vs bottom-up models. Distinctions & complementarities will bedrawn for policies and delivery strategies for different scales, stakeholders, inhabitants and disciplines.
Successful retrofitting will only be achieved through aligning governance, economic, social and technical systems. Governanceprovides the conditions for mass retrofit. What national policies are needed to ensure appropriate conditions andcapabilities? What must regions and cities do to define what the specific local energy infrastructures will be? These will
determine locally appropriate renovation concepts. Financial measures are also important: costs, taxes, incentives for energy
sources, renovation services, etc. Existing instruments (e.g. energy performance certificates / labels, how they are used andtheir actual outcomes) require assessment for their impact and efficacy. What basket of measures is needed to accelerate
retrofit and reduce energy demand?

Papers in this special issue will address key questions and offer solutions in these areas:• Translating national and city level goals into clear targets for retrofit of the domestic building stock•

The governance and regulation of retrofit: enabling legislation, changes to existing legislation / regulation, enforcement,incentives, aspects of ownership and tenure•

Planning and coordination perspectives: what new roles for planners, building control and assessment professions inidentifying and cataloguing stock, facilitating and monitoring progress?

•Policy analysis of municipal actions / programmes on building retrofits and their intended outcomes.

•Top-down vs bottom-up approaches; incentives for participating in mass retrofit programmes•

The inclusion of embodied energy / carbon in the total calculation•

Training, skills and certification of schemes for construction professionals and individual projects•

What capabilities and capacities do firms (SMEs and micro-enterprises) require to undertake retrofit?

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Supply chains for retrofit: coordination and management of domestic retrofit at scale•

Logistics and construction management: the potential for reducing unit cost of retrofit and increasing quality•

The business case (e.g. financial model) for retrofit and new business models for both private and public sectors

1•Contractual: performance-related outcomes, consumer protection, service-related pricing, performance guarantees•

Mass vs individual retrofit for housing: technologies for retrofit at scale (e.g. Energiesprong, off-site, incremental, etc)•

Public engagement/ persuasion: allocation of responsibility; appropriate forms of engagement and empowerment;
provision of reliable, independent information for tenants and homeowners•

Energy behaviours: how retrofit affects demand; load shifting; new definitions of thermal adequacy, space shrinkage•Coordinating demand reduction with changing energy supply: reducing peak demand, increasing flexibility, and ‘fair usage’•

The development of appropriate standards and retrofit processes for the particular contexts of developing countries

Download the full Call for Papers:
https://www.buildingsandcities.org/media/pdf/BCRetrofitCFPfinal.pdf

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