1. Resistance to transformation:
synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models
Alberto RAIMONDI, Daniele SANTUCCI
Universita´ di Roma Tre, Italy –
Technische Universität München –

2. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
Every Refurbishment design produces an impact on the environment due to demolition and reconstruction processes.
THEN
The reduction of CO2 emissions is imperative. The impact of the carbon footprint in retrofitted buildings should be evaluated in a preliminary design phase, and should be related to different project variants combined with the possible recycle of building components.
THEN
Given the importance of both operational and embodied energy during the building’s life cycle, their quantification should be based on a life cycle perspective “from cradle to grave”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology that enables this target
BUT
To elaborate a really complex LCA according to EN [2], it is necessary to take into account all life cycle stages and focus on scenarios development, and assessment of data quality. Such an approach is very time-consuming, and requires a large amount of data that is difficult to get at the early stages of design.

3. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
THEREFORE
The main aim is here to give designers a synthetic estimation of the impacts generated by transformation of existing buildings.
ALSO
Designers are used to thinking in images, visualizations can be considered a more effective method of ensuring clear comprehension in comparison to the usual charts.
AND
We tried the implementation of this evaluation tool within a BIM model assures a rapid response and strategic development of the design process

4. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
The graphic output of the performances is a successful way to communicate data to designers, as for example is here for Ashby plots for material selection
Graphic output to compare the ratio between different properties – e.g. carbon footprint and price (CES software)
From ASHBY, MICHAEL F

5. Which of these three solution has less impact?
Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through theuse of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
Which of these three solution has less impact?
The proposed methodology allows prediction of the energy demand for embodied energy both for disposed and new building components, and expresses these on a common parameter that can be used to compare different design variants. The evaluation bases on the parameter of Global Warming Potential (GWP) are expressed in kg CO2 equiv.

6. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
To apply the outlined methodology, it is necessary to create a BIM model that contains the existing building and all transformation variants.
Exploded isometric view of the BIM model with all the building components

7. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
The BIM software allows assignment of specific properties to each element (e.g. material, weight, cost, etc.). Furthermore, a CO2 footprint parameter is assigned to each element, both for demolition and recycling as well as for the new element.

8. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
Beside their physical, structural, and aesthetic characteristics, materials are evaluated in terms of embodied energy demand deriving general strategies for identifying the variants with the lowest impact.
Through the use of schedules in BIM, it is possible to produce charts with analytic values assigned for each material. The schedules are used to assign the hue for the synthetic visualization. Here as example we have five levels of green for the GWP impact of some materials.

9. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
We test this method on a real building refurbishments project of a former industrial buildings of ‘70s modified in an exibition centre in the Bologna surroundings.

10. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
First step, as every project, is modeling the existing building. We can join to each elements of the building a CO2 footprint parameter and the hue for the synthetic visualization.

11. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
After that The GWP data is extracted from an existing database, and assigned to each component in relation to its weight. The value, expressed in kgCO2 equiv., can be inserted in the properties window of each element, and is multiplied by its weight. A different color intensity is assigned to each range of GWP, categorized in 5 different ranges
BIM model visualization indicating the CO2 footprint of the different element.

12. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
What we get is a visualization of the building where elements have different hue of green. The darkest green has high GWP impact and the lighter green has lower GWP impact.
BIM model visualization indicating the CO2 footprint of the different element.

13. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
Evaluation of the impacts related to demolition and reconstruction, The impacts of CO2 footprint are distinguished into two categories: the demolition of building components, and the implementation of new elements. For the components that are replaced the End of Life scenario is considered, while for the new components, the entire lifecycle is assessed. The global impact is the sum of the two phases

14. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
Second design options
First design options
OR?
OR?
Third design options
Carbon footprint evaluation for different design options
Comparison between design options, The preliminary design phases are often characterized by the development and evaluation of different options. The CO2 footprint can be used as a determining parameter to compare alternative design options. Integrating it into a BIM model allows inclusion of all options in a single file.

15. Resistance to transformation: synthetic VISUAL indicators to evaluate the environmental impact of building Refurbishment through the use of BIM models Alberto RAIMONDI, Universita´ Roma Tre, Italy – Daniele SANTUCCI, Technische Universität München
The integration of the CO2 footprint evaluation into a BIM model produces a more complete building model that can be continuously updated, integrated, and shared. Several other indicators can be added, such as costs, or the re-use potential of building elements. This kind of analysis could be extended to the other LCA environmental indicators, such as ozone depletion potential (ODP), or acidification potential (AP), in order to achieve a more comprehensive overall indicator.