Revitalization for a new and sustainable building use

Reuse as a principle

For decades there was only one paradigm: the mentality of the throwaway society. Everything that was no longer functional or was simply used or old was thrown away and replaced with something new. With advancing climate change, the scarcity of resources and rising energy costs, a rethink has now taken place. Terms such as recycling, sustainability and resource conservation are now omnipresent. In order to put the new awareness into practice, we must switch to a circular economy with the aim of keeping raw materials in the economic cycle for as long as possible. The resulting extension of life cycles reduces waste production and resource consumption through the long-term use of products. Only by reusing resources can the major ecological challenges of our time be mastered and the climate change achieved for a livable future for the generations of tomorrow.

Use existing building structures

The principle of recycling is also becoming increasingly popular in the construction industry. Buildings contribute significantly to global environmental pollution and cause a significant proportion of global CO2 emissions and energy consumption. This requires a more sustainable approach to existing buildings. In the interests of preserving the building fabric, it therefore makes sense to focus on modernization and conversion rather than demolition. Modern architecture is all about protecting, preserving and restoring. The revitalization of old existing buildings creates future-oriented solutions. This includes all measures that ideally adapt existing living and usable space to current requirements and optimize the contemporary usability of a building. In this context, building floor plans can be largely replanned, which offers opportunities for alternative room layouts and modern usage models.

Potential for clean buildings

In addition, a holistic revitalization project includes various technical upgrades for more efficient operations. These are usually aimed at meeting increasing legal requirements, e.g. through ESG reporting, and increasing regulations in favor of environmental protection. These include the introduction of modern insulation, air conditioning, ventilation and heating technology. Central aspects here are reducing energy costs and creating an ideal indoor climate. After revitalization, buildings not only offer attractive usable space, but also climate-friendly building technology.

The key to sustainability in building operations

In addition to modern building and room technology, the comprehensive networking of building components is also crucial to achieving more environmentally friendly building operations. Intelligent room automation creates smart buildings that independently ensure a demand-based energy supply and an optimal room climate via a controlled control system.

Decentralized sensor-based room automation with BlueRange offers a wide range of options for wirelessly networking sensors and controlling building components based on data. The IoT platform allows sensor data to be analyzed and effective energy-saving measures to be taken on an ongoing basis for improved energy management.

Flexibility as a catalyst

The BlueRange Mesh enables the flexible design of the technical infrastructure so that buildings can continuously adapt to changing usage requirements. The wireless communication of integrated building components means that devices can be networked independently of physical connections in the form of data cables. Kilometers of copper cables for data traffic, which are laboriously laid and extend through the entire building and, on top of that, significantly increase the fire load, are thus obsolete. Thanks to the wireless technology, BlueRange can be put into operation quickly, easily adapted and expanded. This makes it easy to react to the redesign of room layouts or the installation of additional building components and to implement changed requirements. In contrast to conventional wired systems, BlueRange, with its adaptability and scalability, forms the perfect symbiosis with the requirements of a revitalization project, for the improvement of existing building structures and the retrofitting of energy-saving building technology.

Conclusion

The recycling of building materials in combination with an energy-efficient and flexible technology concept taking into account energy regulations delivers steady

Image credits

Title image by Henry & Co. (@hngstrm)
Interior view by Mikhail Derecha (@mihonich)