PLURAL

Plug-and-use renovation with adaptable lightweight systems

PLURAL aims to design validate and demonstrate a palette of versatile, adaptable, scalable, off-site prefabricated plug and play facades accounting for user needs (“Plug-and-Use” kits). Three different core systems are assessed, coupling heating cooling, ventilation, heat harvesting systems with smart windows, 3D printing, low carbon footprint and nano-enabled coating materials to reduce the building total primary energy consumption.

A BIM based platform and a Decision Support Tool (DST) will be developed to enable the optimal component selection, and integration, best PnU kit design, faster and low-cost manufacturing and installation. Renewable energy and smart control systems will be coupled with low environmental impact – in-one PnU kits for residential building deep renovation. The project aims to create best practice renovation examples for the residential sector based on innovation and competitiveness, with benefits for the citizens and the environment; to develop training tools for main stakeholders (planners, installers, building owners and end users); to improve the life cycle based (LCA, LCC) performance standards applied in the building sector.

The project enroles a total of 18 European partners, including ITeC, Institut de Recerca de l’Energia de Catalunya, Agència de l‘Habitatge de Catalunya and PichArchitects, and is led by the National Technical University of Athens.

Objectives

1. Near zero energy consumption of buildings renovated with PnU kits
2. Cost-effective renovation
3. Fast-tract renovation
4. Environmentally- friendlier deep renovation
5. Flexibility – Adaptability

Demonstration

The PLURAL concept will be integrated at three different real demo building sites, located in Greece, Spain and the Czech Republic, featuring different climate conditions and heating/cooling needs and user requirements, thus demonstrating the versatility and robustness of the overall concept.

PLURAL also includes three virtual building demos for simulating and validating the performance and operation of the solutions. The real demonstrators will also be used for their virtual assessment under conditions that differ from the actual ones. The results will be used for establishing best available techniques and guidelines regarding all implementation phases, including shipping, installation, maintenance and decommissioning.