Building stock categorization for energy retrofitting of historic districts based on a 3D city model

Abstract

Improving energy efficiency of buildings is one of the key areas for 
reducing emissions of pollutants and improving global sustainability. 
Energy rehabilitation of existing buildings is currently one of the key 
challenges for the revitalization of the construction sector in Europe. 
Addressing such rehabilitation at urban scale versus individual 
rehabilitation of buildings has important benefits. However it makes 
the task much more complex, for which the use of tools to facilitate 
the identification of the best strategies for rehabilitation based on 
evidences is necessary. When we talk about historic districts it is 
necessary to address the problem from specific approach taking into 
account the peculiarities of the buildings contained therein. In this 
context the solution presented in this paper proposes the identification 
of the main typologies of buildings in the district and the selection of 
a representative building of each typology to simplify data collection 
process and use the data from the representative buildings as a basis 
for total calculations taking into account the representativeness 
of each typology in the district. The building stock categorization 
process is detailed step by step, and its implementation in a software 
tool that automates some of the activities of each step. Validation 
is carried out through the implementation in the historic district of 
Santiago de Compostela.
Key Words: energy efficiency, historic districts, 3D cities, 
building typology, categorization tool.