Good practice:

Envelope retrofitting on 1950’s buildings

The building renovation intervention that is being carried out in Vitoria Gasteiz’s Coronación District, as demo area for SmartEnCity European Project, involves the intervention in the façade and roof, improving insulation and air tightness and installing new low energy windows. This district reflects the major challenges in terms of retrofitting and implementation of smart city concepts: very high density, low – medium income and relevant social dimension.
Following the diagnosis in the demo area (1,913 dwellings), six main typologies (from the energy point of view) were identified. Preliminary design projects for building retrofitting were developed for a sample building of each typology, aiming for ambitious energy savings.
In October 2016, an agreement with 55 selected teams meeting the specified requirements was signed. In May 2017 and June 2018, two-day training sessions were held with 105 professionals from the agreement list, explaining the technical conditions of the rehabilitation projects.
In July 2018 a major milestone was reached with the beginning of the first retrofitting works on the two communities catalogued as early adopters.
In February 2019 first two buildings’ retrofitting works were finished, and soon next 9 buildings will be started. The process of renovation has been split into 4 phases and it will continue until accomplish the projected 32 buildings’ renovation. VISESA, the Basque Government Public Housing Corporation, is coordinating the pilot.

Circa 21,000 euros per dwelling. The refurbishment of up to 450 homes is co–financed by SmartEnCity, the Basque Government and the Municipality. The final price for the house owners is 9,600 EUR on average. In addition, a guarantee fund has been created for those who cannot afford the investment.

In addition to the renovation process, a monitoring task has been began to test the eventual improvement of the comfort in the retrofitted dwellings and the expected drop of energy consumption. In the firstly retrofitted buildings the consumption of energy dedicated for heating purposes has fallen up to nearly a 50% in some cases if compared with 2018’s winter.

Citizen engagement has been the real challenge. Transmitting to the neighbours the necessity of energy efficiency has claimed for a giant effort. Payment difficulties among the neighbours have been another difficulty in a degraded area with a very low average income.

Through agreements signed between both parties (homeowners and VISESA as delegated promoter, VISESA manages, contracts, supervises and finances the correct design and execution of the rehabilitation works of the buildings, delivering the final product “turnkey” to its owners and charging them the cost difference less subsidies. VISESA also manages the different subsidies administrative tasks (application, justification, etc.) as "one stop shop agency“, discharging the neighbours of these cumbersome tasks.
A large part of the neighbourhoods of Spanish cities has a socio – economic situation similar to Coronación, so the experience gained can be very useful in the renovation processes promoted by different municipalities or other agencies.
Innovative role of the public company VISESA as delegate promoter of the retrofitting actions, on behalf of the Communities of homeowners, could be replicated in other districts or transferred to other public housing bodies in Europe.