Avineon is part of the Digital Twin Concept for Scaled-up Retrofits (DITUR) research consortium. We are investigating how advanced 3D building models and digital twin concepts can support renovation challenges to meet the 2050 climate goals.
The DITUR project
The goal in Europe is to become the first continent with net zero emissions by 2050. Achieving this will require extensive renovation of residential buildings in Europe. Almost 40 per cent of buildings in Europe were built before 1960 and were not built according to an energy efficiency plan. The traditional market and lack of renovation packages in Flanders makes it a challenge to achieve this target. The current renovation rate is only 1% per year, while a minimum of 3% per year is needed.
The digital twin
To increase the renovation speed, Avineon developed a digital twin concept that provides new insights, such as which renovation technique is best to choose for each building.
The digital twin designed for this project consists of a detailed and accurate 3D model of the building stock, enriched with additional geometry of windows, fireplaces, solar panels and attributes containing information related to building energy efficiency. These are obtained using AI algorithms for object detection.
Here is an example of how accurate the digital twin model is compared to the real image. This example uses buildings from social housing company de Mandel in Roeselare (Belgium).
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The result
The use of detailed 3D building models in a performance environment, enriched with geometry and relevant attributes is a promising approach to tackle the renovation of large numbers of buildings in an informed way. This approach not only reduces the cost of building inventories but also identifies the priority with which buildings should be renovated.
Would you like to know more about the DITUR project and Avineon's contribution within it? Download the case study here.
