Thinking caps on at DIRECTION’s second replication workshop in Bolzano, Italy

On 22 September the DIRECTION project’s second of three replication workshops took place under the auspices of Ulrich Filippi from EURAC in Bolzano, Italy. These workshops form part of the last leg of DIRECTION, building on the achievements of the last three to four years of endeavours.

This second workshop gathered twelve experts with the aim of identifying strategies to create a market for the integrated design process (IDP) developed under DIRECTION. An IDP is defined as a collaborative, multidisciplinary process which spans the whole of the building phases: design, architecture, building work, commissioning, management, servicing. For DIRECTION, this means aiming for zero energy balance, high level of indoor comfort, economically viable, functional, and aesthetic.

Ulrich had the attendees put on their thinking caps to focus on possible scenarios for IDP. After presenting the IDPs used in different buildings, he invited the audience to look at how improvements could be made while taking into account differences between countries. As a small but in-depth and practical exercise based on real-life scenarios, the workshop was designed to fully utilise the knowledge and experience of each expert. The overall objective was to identify IDPs that could boost delivery of low energy buildings in Europe.

The first workshop has already provided insights from Spanish experts and their feedback is currently being published on the DIRECTION website. In the same way, we will also be publishing the expert insights over the next few weeks from this second workshop in Italy. As a conclusion to this latest workshop, Ulrich points out that ‘Partners tended to agree that the market for very low energy new buildings in Europe is still in its early stages. To accelerate growth, they stressed the importance of cultural rethinking and political drivers.’