Introduction

Strategies and renewable energy technology applications for city regeneration RESTART is designed to provide the public authorities, institutions and professionals of European industrial cities, with some “Exemplary Urban Planning” on innovative energy integration on the built environment. RESTART is an integrated quality of projects in targeted cities:

• AMBarcelona (E)
• Glasgow (United Kingdom)
• Le Grand Lyon (F)
• Torino (I)
• Rotterdam (NL)
• Copenaghen (DK)
• Porto (P)
• South Dublin (IR)

Objectives and target audience

• Metropolitan Area de Barcelona – District Heating with biomass in 695 dwellings in Molins de Rei
• Glasgow – The Lighthouse of C.R. Mackintosh was rehabilitated and accommodates a major retailer, offices and an Architecture and Design Centre.
• Greater Lyon – Solar Habitat, more than 200 renovated dwellings, which use a set of measures to reduce the energy consumption, including passive greenhouses and solar systems
• Torino – The Environment Park, a sustainable science and technology park, has become an asset for the city of Torino.
• Rotterdam – A new district of 800 low energy dwellings, with emphasis on passive and active solar energy
• Copenhagen – Visible balance of resources in the renovation of an 1870-1900 urban block, located in a working residential area.
• Porto – Rehabilitation process in the historical centre, associated with an urban rehabilitation programme of more than 300.000 m2 of degraded buildings
• South Dublin – More than 500 housing units constructed throughout Ireland, with a focus on energy efficiency.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

RESTART is a project managed and co-ordinated by RESET e.e.i.g.
Total Investment >200.000.000 Euro
Total Eligible Cost 10.830.954 Euro
EC Contractual Support 3.682.540 Euro
Project partners
Coordinator: Roberto Pagani, SOFTECH – 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., SOFTECH Energia Tecnologia Ambiente (I), ECD Energy & Environment Ltd (UK), AGORA’ Ingenierie et Management de la Ville (F), ICAEN Institut Català d’Energia (E), Institut Cerdà (E), W-E Consultants Sustainable Building (NL)

Process

The RESTART process was characterised by:

• Vertical design and construction activities in the eight cities;
• Horizontal / common tasks, involving all contractors with their key players.

The RESTART Common Tasks were tailored to provide the participation of various target roles, within the demonstration project:

1. city administrators,
2. local target groups and associations,
3. designers and professionals,
4. manufacturers, builders, promoters

1. Governance.
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. The Inter-Services Working Group at the City level 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 included both city officers, professional employees of the local authority and community representatives.
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 required 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 reflected 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.

2. Involvement
Design Ateliers
A cross-demonstration activity involving a great number of local professionals and constituting an example of “involvement” was 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.

3. Best Practices
Technology experts and professionals were an essential part of RESTART demonstration project. They participated in all steps of the process, prospecting the following tasks, which are a common link 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.

4. Technologies
The experience of 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.

Results

The following are the building demonstration projects co-ordinated within RESTART:
Metropolitan Area 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.
Dwellings: 695
Saving (Euro/y): 170.000
Techno-investment (Euro): 812.500
Extra-cost (Euro/m2):  14,6
Maintenance (Euro/y): 77.550
Pay-back period (y): 8,8
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.
Saving (kWh/y): 3.432
Renewable energy: 32%
Techno-investment (Euro): 1.028.101
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%. In the future, it is expected that, each year, 20% of residential buildings in the Lyon area will be built according to these technologies.
Dwellings: 213
Saving (Euro/y): 910.000
Techno-investment (Euro): 1.001.662
Extra-cost (Euro/m2): 6,54
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, renewable energy sources, ventilated facades. The feature: low buildings blending into the greenery of the natural park.
Surface (m2): 32.000
Saving (Euro/y):  189.420
Techno-investment (Euro): 780.242
Extra-cost (Euro/m2): 24
Maintenance (Euro/y):  73.875
Pay-back period (y): 6,7
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.
Dwellings: 380 high performance
Saving (Euro/y): 138.273
Techno-investment (Euro): 1.189.426
Extra-cost (Euro/m2): 39,6
Pay-back period (y): 8,6
Copenhagen -Visible Balance of Resources in Urban Blocks
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. dwellings 303 and 37 shops
Saving (Euro/y): 109.905
Techno-investment (Euro): 1.025.068
Extra-cost (Euro/m2): 34
Maintenance (Euro/y): 6.700
Pay-back period (y): 9,9
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.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

RESTART catalysed the appropriate mix of:

• Administrators (planning and regulation promoters);
• Entrepreneurs (technology manufacturers, promoters, builders);
• Experts (designers, professionals, consultants);
• Citizens (community representatives, associations).

This mix of participants helped to arise the innovation where it could afford to become prevalent enough, without being overwhelmed by the inertia of the system (critical mass). Each actor involved into the Demonstration Process was 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:

• Create a Vision (Administrators, Planners – Governance);
• Plan Together (Community – Involvement and Partnership);
• Unite the Forces (Local Carriers, Professionals – Best Practice);
• Do the right things (Suppliers, Builders – Technologies).

RESTART consisted of a mix of technical and non-technical interventions and was pervasive enough to involve all aspects of the decisional process: planning schemes, design criteria, new regulations, building re-organisation, economic development of the site, social aspects and quality of life, with the aim of facilitating the penetration of innovative urban technologies and maximizing the rational use of energy.
A lot of innovation was put into this targeted project: methods, tools, process, and products. Many partners of RESTART have learned “how-to” design and build in a more cooperative and sustainable way, with the participation of all players.
The replicability of tools and methods adopted by RESTART is very high and currently happening in all cities of the network, on an independent basis, since the replication at the European level has been recently discouraged.