Thermal renovation of a panelka building in Chernihiv and technology transfer

ongoing

Around 85% of the housing stock in use in Ukraine was built before 1990 using building codes with low energy efficiency standards. Most buildings have hardly had any energy efficiency measures. These buildings require a substantial amount of heating to ensure the habitability of the apartments in winter. Ukraine's heating infrastructure relies predominantly on gas and coal. In addition, the ongoing military aggression from Russia poses a persistent threat to Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The goal of this project is to empower both the professional community of architects and engineers and homeowners' associations (HOAs) to facilitate comprehensive circular renovations. As there are no previous instances of renovations based on prefabrication and bio-based materials in Ukraine, this project aims to pioneer this approach. It will adapt technologies from other countries, namely Estonia, to the Ukrainian context while identifying and addressing existing obstacles. The project encompasses two main aspects: technology transfer and piloting a deep circular renovation of a panelka building in Chernihiv, Ukraine, serving as an exemplary model; and an educational one, wherein advocacy and capacity-building programs will be implemented based on this model. These programs will target construction professionals and HOAs representatives. The project aims to involve the co-owners of the pilot apartment building from the design phase to implementation. The goal is to sustain their capacity to operate and maintain the building after renovation, while also demonstrating how a community of co-owners can organise and implement renovations. The demonstrator renovation will utilise locally sourced bio-based materials such as compressed straw for insulation and particle boards made from recycled wood type B. When scaled up the recycling of wood type B will leverage the surplus of waste wood type B resulting from extensive demolitions caused by Russian hostilities.