Energy and process efficient construction in three streams: social, senior and single-family housing
The overriding goal of the initiative is to educate the public and initiate changes on the construction market in Poland in the context of the use of ecological technologies designed in initiative. Those are a response to the challenges related to the formation of the industrial ecosystem based on a circular economy model, demographics and the development of an approach based on sustainable energy and resource management in construction, taking into account the entire life cycle of buildings.
National
Poland
Pomorskie voivodeship - the city of Rumia
Silesian voivodship - Mysłowice city
Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeship - the city of Włocławek
Podkarpackie voivodship - the city of Żywiec
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
EFFR - European development fund , Smart Growth Operational Programme, 2014-2021
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): National Centre for Research and Development Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local) First name of representative: Piotr Last name of representative: Kopacz Gender: Male Nationality: Poland Function: Project Manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Chmielna 69 Street Town: Warsaw Postal code: 00-801 Country: Poland Direct Tel:+48 22 390 74 01 E-mail:info@ncbr.gov.pl Website:http://www.gov.pl/web/ncbr
The initiative consists in the development of modern technologies for housing construction by selected top 9 companies commissioned by the National Center for Research and Development (NCBR). The 4 best-rated technologies will be demonstrated in the form of full-size Technology Demonstrators, i.e. ready-made 1 social, 1 senior, 2 single-family buildings. The buildings will be built on real estate provided by Strategic Partners (selected cities in Poland) and settled by the end of 2023. Activities under the initiative include:
1) a comprehensive approach to breaking down barriers and eliminating bad practices in the construction industry, where the lowest possible construction cost without operating costs is currently important to investors, construction is dominated by small-sized elements and the use of modules elements does not exceed 5%, more than 60% of energy consumed by buildings it is only used for heating,
2) promoting and educating ecological solutions for construction among manufacturers of building materials, designers, research units, investors, representatives of local governments, building users,
3) increased public awareness of climate change and the necessary steps to prevent a climate catastrophe - according to the report of the European Environment Agency, in 2018 Poland ranked first in the EU in terms of the concentration of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and 70% of buildings are energy inefficient - the Primary Energy index exceeds 150 kWh/m2 per year,
4) dissemination of tools: to use as much energy from renewable energy sources as possible; to manage energy and water consumption in buildings; to use construction materials with a low carbon footprint with a view to climate protection and the life of future generations,
5) development of comprehensive guidelines for general use related to reference values of technology parameters for ecological construction,
6) creating a functioning model of social and senior housing ready for replication
Education through conferences, scientific publications, social research, meetings for numerous groups: local governments, developers, citizens
Creating a social change in the approach considering the costs of operating buildings in the implementation of investments
Promoting the supply of buildings with renewable energy sources as much as possible and the use of ecological technologies for housing construction
Promoting the use of recycled and low-carbon building materials in modern buildings
Popularization of the construction strategy adapted to the needs of young families and the needs of seniors
The initiative is exemplary because it integrates several aspects at the same time - a cheap, quick and ecological way of building, sustainable use of energy, water and natural resources in the production and operation of buildings.
SPREADING THE CHANGE IN THE WAY OF BUILDING IN POLAND AND THINKING ABOUT CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS IN THE LONG-TERM CATEGORY
In Poland, construction from small-sized elements dominates. This means a long construction time, complicated coordination of industries and a "headache" for home buyers who have to finish them themselves. In the NCBR competition, it was decided to change this, and therefore commercialization-ready technologies for general use were developed, which enable the construction of ready-made 3D/2D modules prepared in the factory, delivered to the construction site with a full finish and equipment, including, for example, household appliances. Thanks to this, the construction time is shortened to a few months, the apartments are finished (ready to use), in a repeatable high standard.
ENSURING THE REQUIRED LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REGARDING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Buildings in Poland are "energy vampires" and consume excessive energy, using mainly fossil fuels, polluting the air and contributing to the climate catastrophe. Current installations in buildings do not allow to reduce water consumption, and residents are not able to control media consumption, the cost of maintenance is very high. Construction materials have a high carbon footprint (cement, steel) and recycling is virtually non-existent. In the NCBR competition, technologies were developed in which the building is very energy-saving, produces energy from renewable energy sources in such a way as to provide more energy than the residents need for all needs (heating, hot water, electricity, car chargers). This approach drastically reduces maintenance costs. Technologies are based on rainwater while saving it by its repeated use for various purposes.
In cooperation with sociologists, architects and representatives of local authorities, social research was developed consisting in direct conversations and consultations with residents of cities where technology demonstrators will be built. Information on the assumptions and goals of the developed technologies was presented in the local press, industry conferences and discussion panels with experts and during meetings with representatives of local communities. These activities were primarily aimed at breaking down barriers in society in thinking about changing the existing models of functioning of the so-called social housing, discussion on the opportunities and risks of implementing new technologies. What's more, these activities allowed to identify a high degree of ignorance about social needs among investors, construction companies, representatives of local governments and initiate a discussion about the future of social housing in Poland.
The above activities are aimed at understanding and taking immediate action in relation to the problems in Poland. Elderly people currently live in very unfavorable housing conditions, on the so-called "4th floor without an elevator", in an oversized apartment (children have moved out), often in energy poverty, they do not have money to heat an energy-inefficient apartment or house. On the other hand, young people cannot afford expensive apartments and houses.
The design assumptions were guided by two basic goals, adjusting the apartment to the changing needs of residents in the life cycle and the selection of solutions facilitating independent and comfortable life at every stage, thus preventing alienation and supporting the building of local communities (playgrounds, vegetable garden, greenhouse, relax zones) The comfort and safety of use is influenced by the system that cares for the safety of users (call system), terraces or balconies belonging to each apartment, maintaining temperature and high air purity.
The key to the initiative was to develop a model approach to the settlement of social buildings and to develop a communication system, educating the public about the needs of social groups while respecting the interests of all these groups. An important element were environmental interviews with city residents, local visions in the existing housing stock, so as to get to know not only the point of view of building managers, but above all taking into account social factors and the needs of cities in this area.
Part of the initiative is to create a solution in response to the problems of the growing social group from year to year, which are seniors. The designed model social senior building has apartments adapted to the needs of the elderly. The project takes into account various degrees of disability, enabling seniors to function independently. All design solutions are aimed at not stigmatizing the elderly, supporting their independent and pro-social life. The assumption for the project is to create a community that helps each other, which is united by experiences and interests. The project stimulates integration while respecting the autonomy of the individual.
Another goal of the initiative is to face the problem of housing deficit, overcrowding of flats and to ensure the right conditions for the start of life for the Generation of Tenants, the so-called Generation Rents. As a result of the project, buildings with affordable, low-maintenance and equipped apartments will be created – a model social multi-family building, a senior multi-family building and a single-family building with similar parameters.
A model solution is also created for a selection of residents of a multi-family building, giving a chance for their own apartment to both people in need and those who have so far been in a niche – people with average incomes who do not give a chance for social assistance or to buy a flat on market terms.
The elderly and people in need of long-term or temporary support.
These people will be involved in the initiative through workshops aimed at education in the field of "sustainable architecture" issues and instruction on the operation of building systems. The test part of the facility's functioning depends on the commitment, knowledge and understanding of the future residents of the building. Their opinions and experiences will be used to make improvements for the designed systems and technology development.
Local community.
The urban assumptions of the designed buildings were guided by the idea of accessibility, all elements of a rich land development program such as playgrounds, relaxation and rest zones for adults are common spaces intended for local recipients. A parallel and at the same time equally important element of the project is the examination of social needs, as part of the project research will be carried out to determine the awareness and requirements of recipients of the project.
Municipalities
Town where buildings will be built and towns that want to carry out similar projects in their area. By improving the technology, buildings can be built within a few months, and the modularity of the solution affects the possibility of adjusting the scale and implementation in any location. It gives each locality or local government an already proven and verified tool for satisfying basic human needs, which is the right to proper housing conditions. The project is to be an impulse for a social debate aimed at developing and introducing socially acceptable and modern solutions for construction on a large scale.
Technical specialists
Installation designers, engineers, architects, manufacturers of building materials, representatives of construction supervision authorities, who, thanks to the dissemination of information on the developed technologies, will learn and will be able to use proven and exemplary technologies tailored to the market needs.
The initiative to develop the assumptions of the Project was developed by experts from field of construction, renewable energy sources. Representatives of the Polish Smog Alert were also involved in creating the requirements of the project. A Monitoring Committee composed of independent representatives of the scientific world has been established to assess the progress of the initiative.
As part of the research with the market's offer, a technical dialogue was conducted with 10 companies to verify the expected requirements for technology. The necessary information was obtained regarding the current and forecasted possibilities offered by prefabricated or modular technologies, research and development areas, potential for cooperation with contractors from the construction sector, and in the scope of the needs of potential recipients of the above-mentioned technologies.
In the proceedings, 9 contracts for the implementation of the project were concluded. During the implementation of the contracts, the Contractors developed Solutions for a specific research problems, which cannot be solved using existing measures on the market, without carrying out works research and development.
In order to provide places to demonstrate the developed technologies, the project announced market consultations for the Strategic Partner (local government units) who will make the property available for the construction of the demonstrator. 34 cities and municipalities took part in the procedure. As part of the procedure for selecting the Strategic Partner, 4 agreements were signed.
In the project, sociologists have developed concepts for conducting social research that will be carried out in municipalities. The results of the research will help in the allocation of the inhabitants of the Demonstrator.
NCBR has started talks with the National Real Estate Resource in order to disseminate the project by replicating the developed technologies on a larger scale.
The following were mainly involved in the design and implementation of the initiative:
A) project team which undertook activities disseminating the problems and challenges of the construction sector, substantively educated companies developing technology and took corrective actions in crisis situations,
B) private entities providing services on the construction market in production of modular structures, which verified the assumption of the initiative in the context of market standards,
C) experts in the field of structural physics, HVAC installations, building construction, architects, specialists in building operation, production and storage of electricity, recycling of building materials, determination of the carbon footprint who have developed methodologies for calculating technology parameters,
D) a Monitoring Committee consisting of experts in the field of megatrends, construction, climate protection, who decided to implement the initiative,
E) researchers in the field of determining and assessing the energy performance of buildings,
F) researchers in the field of sociology and econometrics, who developed the concept of conducting social research in the cities where the Demonstrators were created,
G) managers of senior buildings,
H) managers of social resources in municipalities,
I) residents of cities where Technology Demonstrators will be built,
J) experts in public procurement law and pre-commercial procurement to establish the legal framework for the implementation of the initiative.
Representatives cooperated with each other during the substantive assessment of the proposed solutions and verification of the feasibility of the developed technologies after the completion of individual stages of the initiative. The added value of the involvement of above specialists was the development of optimal and ambitious requirements in the context of the developed technologies and at the same time the possibilities and needs of the market.
The innovative nature of the initiative results from the combination of many challenges in construction in one project and on focusing on its broad presentation on the market, i.e. education of citizens, investors, decision-makers in the state administration in the context of building public awareness of the necessary changes in the buildings thinking about climate neutrality by 2050. Residents of Demonstrators will be able to track their energy consumption will be trained by the creators of the developed technologies on how to effectively use the devices and installations installed in the building. In Poland, these will be the first buildings of this type, which will be a model for use by subsequent cities and private investors in the context of ecology and an effective construction process.
The demonstrators are designed to eliminate the use of fossil fuels for heating, ventilation and domestic hot water. Traditional construction consumes more than 50% too much energy for heating caused by poor insulation and ventilation. In addition, the construction time of the building is about 3 months and is significantly shorter compared to traditional construction where construction takes about 2 years. Investors pay attention only to the costs of construction, while the costs of maintenance and subsequent operation are not taken into account. The project is based on the assumption that the cost of maintenance and operation will be the lowest or even zero using photovoltaic panels, heat pumps, building management system, partitions with a very low heat transfer coefficient. The choice of building materials used in the Demonstrators for implementation is dictated by the high degree of recycling, as well as the lowest possible carbon footprint produced during their production. One of the streams of the project promotes senior housing with possibilities of adapting housing conditions in terms of limited mobility and comfort of using rooms and spending time with peers.
PCP methodology
The methodology of conducting pre-commercial procurement allows it to be used in the development of advanced technologies based on the definition of a research problem and determination of the required parameters of the technology that solves this problem.
Social needs research
Project activities are part of a broader strategy on social and senior housing. The conducted statistical research among two cities in Poland is to give an answer to the question of how buildings should be settled so that they correspond to real social needs. The model structure of building settlement can be used in any location, taking into account local social factors.
Technology scalability
Modules could be used in any location in the world, in any arrangement. Modules connections have possibility of reconfiguring structure and increasing the area or number of storeys in the building by adding more modules.
Energy independence
The use of Renewable Energy Sources in combination with electricity storage allows you to produce more energy than the building needs for all needs (heating/cooling, electricity). The use of heat/cold energy storage allows buildings to minimize energy consumption, significantly relieving the power grid.
Water, Sewage
The applied solution allows to use rainwater in a closed circuit up to 95% and then, thanks to its local treatment, reuse it, e.g. for flushing toilets. This solution enables easy adaptation in new locations, minimizing the use of water supply and sewage networks.
Manufacture of building materials
The main assumption of the developed solutions is to use modules and prefabricated elements for construction, which are created in specialized factories. The modules can be transported anywhere in the world and then assembled by crane at their final location. It is also possible to disassemble the technological line and move it to any place in the world where it can be used temporarily (e.g. Ukraine).
The proceedings were launched in the pre-commercial procurement (PCP) mode which purpose is to develop an innovative and unavailable product through research and development works. NCBR as the contracting authority defines the research challenge resulting from real economic, social or environmental needs, and the contractors selected in the call conduct research and development works aimed at developing and demonstrating the operation of an innovative solution unavailable on the market today, which is a response to the above needs.
PCP ends with the development of the product in full scale and demonstration of its operation in a real operating environment, so contractors are ready to commercialize and implement the developed technologies (the Ordering Party does not guarantee a sales market). The prototype of an innovative product is to respond to a predetermined need, but any entity from the market can proceed to its purchase. The contract under PCP is concluded with several contractors who compete with each other during the project with the developed solutions and their parameters, thanks to which the best technologies are financed. In a pre-commercial procurement, NCBR, as the Contracting Authority, publishes the rules of procedure together with full competition documentation (including requirements regarding the subject of the contract, criteria for evaluating applications and criteria for selecting contractors during the performance of the contract). In response to the announced procedure, contractors submit applications in which they compete with each other on the basis of competition parameters (m.in. the lowest possible cost of construction of the Demonstrator and the cost of operation for 30 years, the best annual energy balance, the lowest energy consumption, the highest use of rainwater, the highest recycling rate and the lowest carbon footprint of building materials) and present assumptions regarding the offered solution and the costs of R&D works.
In Poland, there is still no sense of collective responsibility in the approach to climate protection and in long-term thinking regarding energy, natural resources, production and reuse of waste. Construction is a very high demand for work with its low efficiency and generates a huge stream of construction waste. The technology sought after should contribute to the transition from the current construction industry standard 2.0 to the industry 4.0 standard. The project has the potential to revolutionize housing standards and create a new benchmark for what society considers modern construction. It can also be the basis for further projects on a larger scale, e.g. in the field of social housing and senior housing. Crated solutions allow to reduce the costs of construction and operation of buildings adapted to the dysfunctions of old age which is crucial for improving the quality of life of older people.
In addition, the expansion of competences of Polish companies in the area of cost-effective and energy-efficient construction gives the potential to create numerous jobs and export-oriented companies, in accordance with the slogan: "Let's send Polish products to the world, not people on construction sites". Initiative is in line with the assumptions of the European Green Deal – both in terms of prioritizing energy efficiency and environmental and climate protection, in which energy-efficient buildings play a very important role, as well as building a process-efficient circular economy. The technology has a huge potential to achieve a large share in the domestic, European and even global market. The success of our Project will contribute to the development of companies producing innovative buildings and their contractors, creating sustainable local jobs. Finally, thanks to local generation of clean energy from RES (Renewable Energy Source) ensuring the energy needs of such buildings, it will increase the degree of energy security and contribute to protect air.
Progress of work on technologies was presented several times at industry conferences, discussion panels, meetings with students of construction faculties.
Deliverables by the end of 2022:
1) projects of Technology Demonstrators
2) Applications for obtaining a building permit for demonstrators Technology
3) Prototypes which have been tested for their commercial use, taking into account strength, tightness, humidity of partitions, heat transfer coefficients.
An essential element of the initiative by the end of 2023 is to include in the process of disseminating knowledge and combining the experience of the widest possible group of people from the construction sector – construction companies, property managers, private and public investors, academics, representatives of state institutions. The aim is to reach the widest possible audience of the developed technologies and to convince that there is no turning back from new technologies and reducing the consumption of energy and resources and only they can protect us from climate catastrophe. An excellent opportunity to follow the progress of work on the technology will be cyclical meetings at the construction sites of Technology Demonstrators in 4 locations in Poland, including 1 social building, 1 senior building and 2 single-family buildings. It is planned to organize several industry conferences at the Demonstrators' construction sites combined with a discussion with industry experts and to conduct nationwide social research related to the needs of social and senior housing.
The social building and the senior building will be occupied by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 in accordance with social needs surveys and concepts developed by the Strategic Partners – cities that provide real estate for the construction of Technology Demonstrators. Settlement of buildings can be a starting point for the implementation of ecological construction technologies enabling satisfying housing needs in Poland and Europe.
a) development of competences in the field of ecological and sustainable construction, primarily among contractors from the construction industry through the use of modern construction technologies and maintaining the standards of energy parameters of buildings,
b) reaching a wide audience and disseminating solutions limiting the harmful impact of human activity on global warming, which is possible thanks to the role of NCBR as a unit supporting research and development and promoting thinking about construction products throughout its life cycle,
c) increasing awareness among residents of multi-family and single-family buildings about saving water and energy by rewarding and learning,
d) rational use of utilities thanks to the BMS system installed in the building, rational use of the funds of cities/municipalities through support for independence and preventive activities, anticipating the emergence of problems (overcrowding of flats, centers for disabled elderly people),
e) changing the approach to prevention, supporting the potential of Polish construction companies and providing the possibility of working in the place of residence (prefabricated / module factory) without the need to go to another city or country for work purposes,
f) education of the society through help and exchange of experience - building a local community of seniors, initiating the process of education and learning of local societies thanks to thematic conferences in the Demonstrators' buildings, which will give residents a sense of being part of nature or allow them to change their view of nature,
g) deduction of construction costs and dramatically rapid reduction of building maintenance costs while raising the standard of buildings.
