European Commission
General Directorate for Energy and Transport
THERMIE Programme
Integrated Quality Targeted Project BU/1027/96
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European Commission
General Directorate for Energy and Transport Integrated Quality Targeted Project BU/1027/96 |
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Abstract RESTART is an EC targeted demonstration project coordinated by RESET (Renewable Energy Strategies for European Towns) in conjunction with A.M. Barcelona, Glasgow, Grand Lyon, Turin, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Porto and South Dublin. RESTART aims at providing the public authorities, the institutions and the professionals of these eight industrial European Cities with some "Exemplary Urban Projects", concerning innovative energy-environmental integration on the city scale. The exemplary projects take into account the following criteria, which have provided a homogeneous background to all City-Projects:
Introduction RESTART targeted demonstration project, supported by the European Commission DG Energy and Transport, aims at providing the public authorities, the institutions and the professionals of eight European Cities with some "Exemplary Urban Projects", concerning innovative energy-environmental integration on the city scale. The Projects selected by the Cities for the targeted demonstration follow the principle of providing a larger area of influence to each demonstration site: the demonstration expands its effect to an urban district where innovative rules of the demonstration can be implemented. The different categorisation of the City-Projects responds to the opportunity envisaged by the coordination in dealing with a complex framework of urban problems that the cities have to comply with and solve. The cooperation among the Cities within this project has maximised the global results, in terms of available knowledge resulting from a comprehensive demonstration, which includes: Low energy design - The building programmes allow a strong reduction in the use of non-renewable fossil fuels and a consistent reduction of "greenhouse gases". Low environmental impact - RESTART wants to exemplify new technology applications and planning strategies in order to minimise the environmental impact caused by building settlement (eco-district) Low maintenance needs - The RESTART Projects assume building maintenance as a design parameter.
RESTART: AN INNOVATIVE METHOD The problem of what a “sustainable city” is, can be still considered unsolved. As Paul Treanor wrote, every local administration, every developer, every building company wants to be "sustainable". One typical effect of this is "extensional" sustainability: one additional element or technology makes a building "sustainable", ten of these buildings make a housing project "sustainable", and two or three of these projects make a "sustainable city". Even without such effects, the concept remains vague. In a general perspective, it is more convincing the inherent sustainability of methods and processes, which tend to improve the understanding of problems and the quality of decision making, than the inherent sustainability of materials, products and projects. In order to explain the sustainability of methods and processes a concept worked out in the revision of our past activity can be introduced: the ingredients of urban strategies. The decisional policies at urban level can be summarised into four fundamental approaches: • Top-down approach - related mainly to the activity of governments and/or institutions when introducing new regulations, as well as when reducing regulatory and procedural impediments • Bottom-up approach – referring to the organisation of the community needs and the policies which comply with these needs • Demand-side approach - concerning the end-uses of citizens and their needs: mobility, housing, quality of life, economic opportunities, healthy environment, etc. • Supply-side approach - regarding the capability of markets in organising the production of goods and technologies which respond to consumers’ needs. These four approaches create different urban policy consequences. They are neither better nor worse, when choosing either one approach or another, but they can all be equally significant and effective when pursuing objectives for a better urban quality. As a matter of fact, the urban policies are not exclusively ‘top down’ or ‘bottom up’, or only ‘supply-side’ or ‘demand-side’. The policies are an articulate combination of the four approaches and can be expressed in a Cartesian diagram which, on the x axis, refers to the supplyàdemand and, on the y axis, the top-downàbottom-up. The urban strategies therefore become a combination of policies, according to "top-downàbottom-up" and "supply-sideàdemand-side" approaches, in which every square indicates a type of policy. RESTART has adopted this framework to provide a comprehensive approach to such a wide and complex European urban demonstration project.
RESTART: AN INNOVATIVE PROCESS RESTART catalyses the appropriate mix of:
This mix of participants helps to arise the innovation where it can afford to become prevalent enough, without being overwhelmed by the inertia of the system (critical mass). Each actor involved into the Demonstration Process is interested by a "targeted action", in such a way to involve a multi-targeted set of actions in each project. This multi-targeted strategy of RESTART involved the fulfilment of the following goals:
Involvement & Partnership (Bottom-up/Demand Side) Inter-Services Working Groups In each city, a group of individuals, mainly belonging to the local authority and other public administration, was charged of a continuous assessment of the Demonstration Project, in order to get information and methods for expanding the boundaries of the demonstration to the city limits. Inter-Services Working Group at the City level, at their best, is considered a small group of carriers in action. It is a group of individuals (10/15 persons) who are interested in facilitating the penetration of innovative urban technologies, maximising the application of renewable energies. These groups include both city officers, professional employees of the local authority and community representatives. Design Ateliers A cross-demonstration activity involving a great number of local professionals and constituting an example of "involvement" is represented by the "Design Ateliers" organised by RESTART. The Design Ateliers were organised with the participation of local young professionals (architects and engineers), with a school of architecture or with an academy. The Design Atelier is a one day workshop, held during the periodic RESTART General Meetings in the eight cities, in which 20-30 participants, organised in design tables, have the role of revising, from sketch, the demonstration project of the hosting city, with the assistance of the local designers and of the RESTART coordinators, which join the design tables, facilitating the process. Governance (Top-down / Demand-side) Performance Indicators, Organisational Innovations After having created the Inter-Services Working Groups at the city level, a task involving each city consisted of extracting the most promising "organisational innovations", amongst those under discussion in the forum, and to translate them into possible organisational improvements. This activity requires the development and testing of a coherent set of indicators according to the objectives and the different domains concerned (technologies, energy consumption and savings, comfort, environmental impact, financial viability, etc.) and a screening, made by each city, of the performance indicators of the demonstration project for all these sectors. It reflects into a planning and regulatory activity: how to learn from a demonstration project and put in practice, at the city level, those organisational ideas which are realistically convertible into actions for the administration, in the short and medium term
Best Practices (Bottom-up / Supply-side) Technology experts and professionals were an essential part of RESTART demonstration project. They participate in all steps of the process, prospecting the following tasks, common links for all City-Projects: Energy Assessment at the Design Stage Set up of a method of comparing energy features incorporated in buildings, by normalising data for each country to allow direct comparison. Environmental Assessment at the Building District Development and application of evaluation tools at the urban level for the environmental impact assessment of new or regenerated building settlements
Technologies (Top-down / Supply Side) The catalogue of energy technologies involved in City Projects covers the current state of art. The experience get by RESTART members at the end of this demonstration is a quite unique experience of application of energy technologies in one macro-project. Two common activities have been developed by RESTART in this sector: Technology Catalogue The catalogue of energy technologies involved in RESTART City Projects covers the current state of art. Monitoring and Post-Occupancy Evaluation Establish structure and method for energy usage collection and comparison, energy monitoring and post occupancy evaluation. These two activities have organised the feed-back information from all City-Projects to evaluate actual performance on a common basis; to allow cross-project comparisons; to report on differences between estimated and actual performance and lessons learn; to estimate savings from full and partial take up of measures.
RESTART: AN INNOVATIVE PROJECT
Area Metropolitana Barcelona – Biomass District Heating in Molins de Rei A biomass district heating supplies space heat and hot water to 695 dwellings (253 public and 442 private) in "La Granja", a new development area of Molins de Rei. The collective centralised system allows the comfort conditions and the individual energy control and billing in each flat. An energy service company, participated by the town of Molins de Rei, is managing the district heating.
Glasgow - The Lighthouse of C.R. Mackintosh The Lighthouse has become Scotland's Centre for Architecture and Design and accommodates a major retailer, offices and an Architecture and Design Centre. The Lighthouse hosts the renewable energy advice centre for the promotion of renewable energies. Natural lighting, active solar systems, photovoltaic modules and passive ventilation and cooling systems are implemented.
Greater Lyon - Solar Habitat Greater Lyon has adopted a strategic action plan for the development of Renewable Energies. RESTART has started the implementation of the action plan on the building sector, from social housing. The project concerns 200 dwellings, which use innovative technologies to reduce the energy consumption by 20%. It is expected that, each year, 20% of residential buildings in the Lyon area will be built according to these technologies.
Torino - The Environment Park The Science and Technology Park for the Environment (Environment Park) has become an asset for the city of Torino. It has represented an opportunity for revitalising a district of 1.000.000 m2. The project was created under the concept of environmental sustainability, with extensive use of environmentally-friendly materials and renewable energy sources. The main feature: low buildings blending into the greenery of the natural park
Rotterdam - A district of 800 low energy dwellings The project concerns a district of 800 dwellings in the Stoopweg area, in the city of Rotterdam. The emphasis of the district is on energy efficiency and sustainable buildings. A total of 80 dwellings demonstrate an energy efficient system that is 40% below the current national standard and another 40 dwellings will make optimal use of solar energy. The emphasis in the sub-district area (400 dwellings) is on passive and active solar energy.
Copenhagen -Visible Balance of Resources at Vesterbro The urban renewal block is located in a working residential area, built during 1870-1900. The aim of the project was to create a balance in the consumption of resources and the production of waste. It demonstrates how residents could be positively influenced to change their behaviour in the consumption of water, electricity and heat by establishing "green" common construction and reuse of materials. At the start, the settlement consists of 450 inhabitants, 303 dwellings and 37 shops
Porto - Rehabilitation Process in the Historical Centre The Porto's project is associated with an urban rehabilitation programme in which 300.000 m2 of degraded buildings have to be renovated in the historic centre, which is classified as part of the World Heritage List by UNESCO. It is an urban agglomeration of great historic, artistic, cultural and architectural value, with medieval urban features. CRUARB Building is a 1080 m2 built area, hosting the technical body for the Historic Centre of the Porto Municipality. It is a refined and cultured example of use of natural lighting in cities’ historic centres.
South Dublin - RESTART Ireland In the RESTART-Dublin project 500 housing units have been constructed throughout Ireland, with a focus on South Dublin. The project constitutes the single most important initiative in Ireland directed at addressing the potential for the design and construction of more energy-efficient housing. It has attracted considerable attention from local authorities, semi-state bodies as well as the commercial sector.
Project partners RESTART: Renewable Energy Strategies and Technology Applications for Regenerating Towns - A.M.Barcelona (E), Glasgow (UK), Grand Lyon (F), Torino (I), Rotterdam (NL), Copenhagen (DK), Porto (P), Dublin (IR)
Project Coordinator: Roberto Pagani SOFTECH - RESET g.e.i.e.
Administrative Coordinator: Anne Ged AGORA - RESET g.e.i.e.
Contractors: • Area Metropolitana de Barcelona • Ajuntament de Molins de Rei • Glasgow City Council • Communauté Urbaine de Lyon • Città di Torino • Environment Park S.p.A. • City of Rotterdam • Hillegersberg Schiebroek Rotterdam City District • City of Copenhagen, 4th Dept. • Urban Renewal Company Copenhagen • Fundacao Desenvolvimento Zona Historica do Porto • South Dublin County Council • Allied Irish Banks
Subcontractors: RESET g.e.i.e. 1. SOFTECH Energia Tecnologia Ambiente (I) 2. ECD Energy & Environment Ltd (UK) 3. AGORA’ Ingenierie et Management de la Ville (F) 4. ICAEN Institut Català d’Energia (E) 5. Institut Cerdà (E) 6. W-E Consultants Sustainable Building (NL)
References R. Pagani, ’Urban Strategies and Energy Technologies: managing bottom-up change’, in Improving Market Penetration for New Energy Technologies: Prospects for pre-Competitive Support, Preparatory Working Group for the Building Sector, European Commission - Directorate General for Energy - Brussels, 10 September 1996
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