Technology options for earthquake resistant, eco-efficient buildings in Europe: Research need

The construction sector corresponds to the largest industrial sector not only in economic terms, but also in terms of resource flow. Moreover, European citizens spend most of their lives inside buildings, therefore buildings turn out to be at the centre of social and economic activity. In that light, Europe is involved in several initiatives and strategies aimed at making this sector one of the most competitive and innovative, focusing on the achievement of the environmental and energy targets in line with 2020 Europe Strategy and EU 2050 roadmap, but also ensuring safety both in ordinary conditions and in presence of exceptional events, such as earthquakes. While new buildings can be constructed with high performance levels, the older buildings typically need renovation measures, because of their low energy performance and seismic vulnerability. This report has the aim to define the research needs for exploiting old buildings potential to deliver energy and CO2-emission savings and seismic performance improvement, as well as societal and economic benefits, so that energy efficient and earthquake resistant buildings can have a pivotal role in a sustainable future. In the first part of the report, a detailed analysis of the main characteristics of European buildings in terms of age, size, ownership, location, structural typology is presented in order to define the predominant typology of the European existing building stock; the seismic hazard in Europe and the earthquake vulnerability of European buildings are then analysed; and finally, energy consumptions and environmental impacts in terms of use of resources, construction and demolition (C&D) wastes and CO2 emissions are described. The analysis of the present situation turns out to be essential in order to define the starting point to assess the current and new technology options, examined in the second part of the report and necessary to obtain eco-efficient and seismic resistant buildings. In addition, benefits that a renovation project could bring against a demolition and reconstruction programme have been underlined. Once these inputs have been defined, the requalification needs and the importance to improve renovation strategies, considered as outputs of the analysis, are examined for each of the two abovementioned parts of this study. Finally, a critical discussion on the importance of considering research needs for this topic has been carried out, with a focus on barriers and challenges that could be found during a renovation programme.