Last May, the BuildON project was launched. It focuses on smart buildings, in particular on the transition to decarbonisation and digitalisation of energy management systems. Its goal is to “Build the next generatiON of smart buildings”. With a 20-strong consortium, the project will last three and a half years and is funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe Programme.
Smart buildings aim to improve energy performance for the benefit of building occupants, facility owners and managers, by reducing energy demand and adapting innovative technologies to a ready-to-use state. This is achieved by digitalising buildings through IT and technology dataintegration systems, making them feasible and easily accessible to the occupants.
As part of BuildON, the technology systems will be implemented in four different types of buildings located in five geographical areas with different climate conditions: two residential buildings in Valladolid (ES) and Helsinki (FI), a kindergarten in Gdynia (PL), an office building in Moret-Loing-etOrvanne (FR) and two commercial buildings (car dealerships) in Athens and Thessaloniki (GR). This will allow the project to collect of information from diverse areas with multiple climatic conditions.
In this regard, the partners held a workshop at the project’s kick-off on social innovation to determine the role, interest and impact of the stakeholders involved in the project, for each building. Each group identified some common strengths and challenges, which will be further analysed in the next stages of the project.
The ultimate goal of BuildON is to develop adaptable and attractive services for business, and to help replicate and standardise them for the energy optimisation of buildings. It is a dynamic process that will involve technical, social and commercial dimensions and provide scientific, economic and social results.
Sofía Mulero Palencia, project coordinator at CARTIF Technology Centre in Valladolid, stated: “There is a need to bridge disciplines and address complex societal problems through collaboration and cooperation. BuildON will adopt open standards to maximise interoperability and will rely on a combination of monitoring, assessment, prediction and optimisation technologies. This datadriven approach will enable more systematic use of smart products and services to improve energy performance of buildings.”
BuildON will combine multidisciplinary expertise and resources to facilitate knowledge transfer. Eventually, a business plan for the exploitation and commercialisation of the results will also be set out beyond the end of the project.