BIM for Enhancing the Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of Existing Buildings

Abstract

Most of the buildings of the post-earthquake period in Skopje are built in “beton-brut” architectural style and nowadays, they are treated as an important cultural heritage of the city. Unfortunately, the envelope of those buildings is built without thermal insulation materials and consequently, they are large energy consumers responsible for tons of CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> emission per year. They don’t meet today’s criteria for energy efficiency and the circular economy (CE) practices can hardly be implemented. But, if circularity is understood from the aspect of prolonging their use and improving comfort instead of destroying them, as well as reducing the negative effects caused by their use, then it can be said that the principles of CE have been achieved. In order to improve the energy performance and the building sustainability, as well as to prolong the lifespan with minimal impact on the authentic façade appearance, a renovation with a new façade nanomaterial with high thermal properties is proposed. The simulations of the existing building and the renovated scenario using Building Information Modeling (BIM) is conducted and comparative analyses between the actual condition and the improved scenario of the building are carried out. According to the simulation results, by adding the new material on the façade a significant improvement in the building's energy performance is achieved. It can be concluded that BIM has a great potential in assessing the improvement of energy efficiency of buildings and the possible implementation of CE for existing buildings.</jats:p>