ONLINE BRUSSELS HERITAGE - ONE-DAY SEMINAR - 11/12/2014

URBAN FORMS, TYPOLOGY AND IMPROVING THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF OLD BRUSSELS BUILDINGS

JULIEN BIGORGNE
ENGINEER, PARIS URBAN PLANNING AGENCY

THIS STUDY, COMMISSIONED BY THE BRUSSELS-CAPITAL REGION, STEPS OUTSIDE THE WELL-TRODDEN SCOPE OF BUILDING-CENTRIC ENERGY STUDIES AND INSTEAD TAKES A SYSTEMS-WIDE APPROACH. IT INCLUDES PARAMETERS USUALLY IGNORED BY THIS TYPE OF WORK AND QUESTIONS PRACTICES CENTRED ON THE APPLICATION OF STANDARDS.

This study, carried out at the request of the Brussels Region, was finalised in 2012. We were asked to apply a method that we had previously trialled in Paris to evaluate the thermal capacities of old buildings and to incorporate it into the research currently underway regarding improvement of the energy efficiency of Brussels’ architectural heritage. The full report is available on the website of the Monuments and Sites Department. This presentation is a summary of our work. I will firstly return to the working methodology, as well as the three scales of assessment of the problem that we took into account: region; city; and building. I will not spend a lot of time on the first as it was covered in the presentation on the EPB (see pp. 10-15). I will then focus on issues related to urban forms before coming to those relating to buildings.

THE BROAD OUTLINE OF THE METHODOLOGY

We are, in the medium term, facing a dual challenge: supplies of energy for urban systems, dependence on which will have to be reduced, and climate change, which means reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting the territory to this change. In order to respond to these issues, Europe is proposing a regulatory mechanism ("3x20") up to 2020. Application of this mechanism generally passes from the European Union to the country or region that then applies it directly to the building. This means that the energy question is rarely considered at district level. However, before working on a building, it is important to consider its direct environment, to think about the role it plays in relation to its neighbours. It is therefore this method that we favoured in our approach.

There are two characteristics of our work: it is exploratory and illustrative. Exploratory, as it opens up avenues that include energy-related elements but which are absent from the regulations. In this way, we are trying to apply a method that goes beyond simply taking the regulatory standards into account and enables us to expand the research. It is also illustrative as the purpose of this

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