Prefab.Facade

Climate change is currently one of the greatest challenges of our time. The influence of the building sector is enormous, with a raw material consumption of 47.5 gigatonnes per year and an energy consumption of 40% of the total energy consumed worldwide. According to the BMK report Energy in Austria 2021: Facts and Figures, the provision of space heating and air conditioning consumes almost 24% of the total final energy demand. Progress with regard to the environmental efficiency of residential and service buildings is therefore particularly crucial in this sector. 30% of Austrians live in buildings constructed in the sixties and seventies, another 30% in houses older than 40 years. The newly constructed buildings are responsible for only 10-20% of the total energy consumption due to the high demands on thermal insulation. 80% of the energy is consumed by older existing buildings. In Austria, about 1.9 million residential units are in a thermally insufficient condition and thus in need of renovation. The renovation of existing buildings and in particular the renovation and thermal refurbishment of the façade is therefore currently one of the most important sub-sectors of the building industry. The advancement of research as well as the large-scale establishment of environmental and economically attractive systems is therefore indispensable. The aim of this project is to research the basics for the development of serially prefabricated systems (e.g. from renewable raw materials). With the help of these fundamentals, a basis is to be created for the industry in order to be able to offer innovative and, in particular, environmental competitive alternatives to the currently largely used composite thermal insulation systems with corresponding capacities on the market in the future. The focus will be on resource-efficient and recyclable systems and building materials as well as efficient and economical production and installation. Accompanying the research into technical solutions, an ecological and economic analysis will be carried out in order to be able to quantify the potential accordingly.