Project

Smart Urban Retrofitting of Housing Estates in China and the Netherlands

Urban retrofitting, the redesign of buildings to increase energy performance, is a key policy for the global energy transition. The energy use in domestic practices that are affected by urban retrofitting are central in this project, next to the identification of the (new) social relations amongst and between households and housing and energy providers that come along with them. The project entails a comparative multiple case study of smart urban retrofitting projects in the Netherlands and China. Relevant stakeholders: residents, project initiators, local authorities, housing corporations, and grid operators will be interrogated on the set up, governance and implementation of these projects in Amsterdam and in Mianyang.

This project will inform policy makers and practitioners in Amsterdam and Mianyang about the best  – citizen-consumer inclusive – ways of designing and organizing urban retrofitting projects. This project wants to contribute to a collection of best practices and international exchange helping to achieve sustainability goals, innovative process design and buttons to push in retrofit participation trajectories. Besides this, potential pathways leading to a better adoption of new technologies for heating and ventilation by householders will be researched.