HQE2R Sustainable Renovation of Buildings for Sustainable Neighbourhoods

HQE2R Sustainable Renovation of Buildings for Sustainable Neighbourhoods

This European research and demonstration project is producing a methodology for sustainable neighbourhood regeneration. The project team includes ten European research organisations, and demonstration projects are being carried out in fourteen cities from seven different member states. The term HQE refers to well-established French guidelines for sustainability in building (Haute Qualité Environnementale), but it is argued that at the neighbourhood level it is important to add consideration of the Economic and other social factors implicated in Regeneration projects (hence the acronym HQE2R). The factors are then regrouped to express objectives which are important for increasing sustainability at the neighbourhood scale (see Box 5.1) and can

be translated into design terms. Two of these are physical (the Heritage and the

BOX 5.1

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HQE2R: objectives for neighbourhood sustainability

The sustainable development approach requires prior consideration of the objectives of sustainability for that city. It is not a question of diachronic sustainability (in this sense, any city is sustainable). It is a question of broad options which, at the present time, render the city desirable and liveable for its residents and users without compromising the abilities and quality of life of future generations.

The HQE2R project proposes the use of five global objectives of sustainable development for European cities as a point of departure for a thought process which does not, however, prejudge the specific and particular forms of each city, defined by its history, geography and the men and women who live and die there. These five global objectives of sustainable development for the city are as follows:

• To preserve and enhance heritage and to conserve resources, i.e. human resources,

constructed or natural heritage, natural resources (energy, water, space), whether local or global, bio-diversity, etc.

• To improve the quality of the local environment, for the residents and users of the city.

• To ensure diversity: diversity of the population, the habitat, human activities, space. • To improve integration: integration of the inhabitants in the city, in order that

everyone feels they are both an inhabitant of and have a role to play in the city; integration of neighbourhoods in the city, with reference to the multi-centre city.

• To reinforce social life through local governance, and relations of social cohesion and actions of social equity.

These five objectives (heritage and resources, quality of local environment,

diversity, integration, social life) must serve as the foundation for regeneration projects, development, and construction, whether for a city or for a neighbourhood as well as for buildings. According to the scale and characteristics of the area, the concrete form of these objectives will change. They will also vary according to the project to be handled, as the aforementioned principles do not apply in exactly the same terms to all projects. It is, in fact, a question of an analysis or grid, which allows an overview of all the problems to be tackled in an approach to sustainable development.

Environment) (see Box 5.2), two are geographical (Diversity and Integration) (see Box

5.3) and the fifth is social (see Box 5.4). The objectives are quoted at length as they give

a good example of how more general considerations of sustainability can be focused on the elements of urban design at a neighbourhood scale. The project team have set out a four-stage process for project design:

Decision Analysis Assessment Action

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In each stage a number of procedures are recommended (see also Figure 5.6). In the first stage, it is necessary to identify the problems of the neighbourhood which require action: these can be social, environmental and technical. A strategic decision must be made that sustainable regeneration should be attempted. In the second stage an inventory must be made, various targets are identified and a list of essential indicators established. At this stage it is possible to carry out a diagnosis (including studies of neighbourhood potential as well as of dysfunctions), priorities can be agreed and

BOX 5.2 HQE2R: objectives for environmental sustainability

To preserve and enhance heritage and to conserve resources

Building on the notion and principles of sustainability as laid down in the ‘Charter of European Cities and Towns towards Sustainability’ (‘Aalborg Charter’, Aalborg, Denmark, May 1994), one of the baselines of sustainable development is defined as environmental sustainability: ‘Environmental sustainability means maintaining the natural capital. It demands from us:

• that the rate at which we consume renewable material…does not exceed the rate at which the natural systems can replenish it, • that the rate at which we consume non-renewable resources does not exceed the rate at which they are replaced by sustainable renewable resources, and • that the rate of emitted pollutants does not exceed the capacity of the air, water and soil to absorb and process them.’

Above that, the overall question is how to develop towards a sustainable society, taking into account the restrictions of nature together with the economic and social dimensions of behaviour, within a global context. The development of new structures, organisations and technologies is as important as the inclusion of all people and of communication between them. People have to learn to change their attitudes, show initiative and interact to ensure a viable future for themselves and the following generations. Therefore living conditions (e.g. within an urban neighbourhood) have to be organised in such a way that these changes are supported.

As regards the common heritage, this embraces, in a twofold meaning of the term, both the present and the future:

• by considering energy, material, water and space resources, and also built assets as a stock that must be preserved for future generations; • by building on the wealth of the land as formed by humans currently living on it: this

involves enhancing the potential of the material and human resources available to us to develop a heritage which can be handed on to the future generations.

These two dimensions highlight not only the economic and natural heritage but also the cultural heritage which current generations wish to pass on to their successors.

To improve the quality of the local environment

Sustainable development must enable citizens to gain the benefit of a better standard of

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living, both now and in the future, and must direct actions which place residents at the focus of development. Our standard of living lies at the very heart of European policy, the aim of which is ‘to improve the quality of the life in cities and conurbations whilst facing the problems of the quality of air, noise, traffic congestion, waste, economic competition, employment, security and improving the infrastructure and built environment so as to enhance social inclusion and promote sustainable development’ (European Commission, objective of 5th Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities).

The reduction of nuisance (noise, waste, quality of the air and water) and natural and technological risks lies at the heart of all these problems. The neighbourhood and the city are not simply territories, but complex systems of

networks, activities, users and human experience, with similarities and differences that are constantly changing. To allow for the increasingly dynamic aspect of urban flows,

one must reconcile within the different time scales of the city, 1 life at work and life

outside work, and offer the possibility of access to the different services of the region, modulated to suit the requirements of its inhabitants.

BOX 5.3 HQE2R: objectives for economic sustainability

To ensure diversity

A district must be capable of offering a variety of economic, social, cultural and

natural functions and of ensuring the greatest possible degree of adaptability in the long

term. Diversity must reflect the complexity of these systems, and can increase the information content and quality of exchanges.

A varied supply of the functional opportunities as well as of human and material resources underlies the concept of diversity, the aim of which is to guarantee social and urban mix, to fight social exclusion, to support the development of economic and cultural activities, and to define the continuity of a system where although heterogeneous elements interact they form, together, a homogenous region.

Supporting sustainable development of a neighbourhood and region also means promoting diversity and cultural vitality whilst fostering human resources (gender, ethnic origins, social strata, etc.) and material resources (variety of functions, spaces and activities).

Diversity must also take into account all the functions available at the boundaries of the district, and they must be easily accessible.

To improve integration

A neighbourhood continuously interacts with contiguous areas and all those surrounding it (city, conurbation, sub-region, region, state and planet). This relation with its neighbours, as also with the global environment, is necessary, so that each feels as an inhabitant of their city or their agglomeration, as of the planet, and conversely, so that no territory is excluded from development.

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To guarantee continuous exchange of resources and information, the neighbourhood, and the city and the neighbourhood must hence form open and permeable systems. This opening-up is a denial of ‘neighbourhood Balkanisation’ and fundamental both to upholding the life of the neighbourhood, which cannot itself possess all the means to develop comprehensively and independently, and to ensuring real social and economic integration.

The concept of integration also refers to that of equilibrium between neighbourhoods. However, we focus on the concept of integration since this highlights the interdependence of residents, districts and cultures in a SD dynamic process, at the neighbourhood scale.

specific objectives defined. The third stage is a very important one from the point of view of urban design, for it is now that alternative scenarios must be established and their evaluation undertaken. In the fourth stage a complex set of processes must be set in motion: the drawing up of an action plan, proposing changes to planning regulations (where they exist), writing specifications for building projects and for neighbourhood elements, ensuring that monitoring procedures are put in place. These

BOX 5.4 HQE2R: objectives for social sustainability

To reinforce social life

The creation of relations of exchange and respect between individuals and participation in the life of the town are fundamental objectives for ensuring the perennial nature or sustainability of neighbourhoods. One of the objectives of the Treaty of the European Union is to achieve balanced and sustainable development, in particular

by strengthening economic and social cohesion. 2 Social cohesion is absolutely vital to the development of neighbourhoods: Wilson (1996) argues that a neighbourhood in which social organisation, or social capital, is strong will offer a better quality of life. He points out that neighbourhoods which suffer from poverty and exclusion are also likely to lack social capital. One of the key questions facing regeneration at present is the extent to which excluded neighbourhoods have the capacity to use their social capital to bring about improvement. There is a growing consensus that regeneration programmes initiated by external organisations will only succeed if they work in partnership with local people and utilise local social resources.

As the primary urban forum in which residents can share a common identity and common values, the neighbourhood represents a scale of analysis at which all issues and sustainable development objectives can be fully expressed, particularly with respect to the social dimensions.

To ensure a process of social participation, each inhabitant must develop a feeling of belonging to the district in which they live: this can be strengthened by a policy of information and of stimulating greater awareness, particularly concerning sustainable development issues of interest to the neighbourhood concerned.

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Accordingly, the common values of civics, solidarity and citizenship must be expressed by social bonds, situating the citizen in relation to the sustainable development of their neighbourhood.

will incorporate both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ decision-making gates, depending on the national and regional, legal and economic contexts in which they are set.