Innovation regarding the modernization of old buildings
(Rhineland-Palatinate)
Source: LUWOGE
The „Brunckviertel“ estate in Ludwigshafen (pop. 162,000) is a 1930s BASF company town comprising about 500 residential units. In the 1990s, the apartments turned out to be not appropriate anymore. The LUWOGE (the housing association of BASF), the City of Ludwigshafen and the Federal State of Rheinland-Pfalz developed an extensive modernisation concept in order to keep the district attractive in the long term and to prevent resident migration. Old buildings should be modernised, adapted to modern ecological and technical standards and supplemented by new structures and partly replaced.
The modernization of an old building into an 3-litre house was included in the planning.
Source: LUWOGE
In the course of the modernization of the Brunckviertel estate, the LUWOGE demonstrated the energy savings potential achievable today when refurbishing old buildings. The building, which was converted into a 3-litre house, is a multi-family house containing 9 units on 700 sqm. The energy savings and the reduction of CO2 emissions were primarily achieved by the use of special thermal insulation. The old building is insulated by panels which are 20 cm thick and are made of a new Neopor insulation material. This new insulating material has a significantly better ability of insulation in comparison with conventional procedures.
In order to avoid heat bridges, balconies were built in front of the building. Every room is optimally aerated and vented by a controlled ventilation system. The exhausted air is drawn from the kitchen and bathroom and led to a heat exchanger. It transfers up to 85 % of the exhaust heat to the fresh air, which then, well tempered and filtered, flows back into living and bedrooms. That way all rooms are constantly supplied with fresh and filtered air and pollutants are consistently lead away.
The windows in the 3-litre house have a triple glazing and a U-value of 0.8 W/m2K. The synthetic frames are endowed with a core made of polyurethane foam. Further heat insulation is ensured by the inert gas filling between the glass panes. Compared with an ordinary window, the sevenfold amount of heat escapes through a single-glazed window.
To improve lightness, larger windows were built in. A convenient room climate is archived by latent heat accumulators, which were integrated into the interior plaster of the building material of the flats. In order to advance the future technology, the LUWOGE and their associates integrated a fuel cell into the 3-litre-house. The aim is to replace the conventional boiler by a combined heat and power unit consisting of a fuel cell and an auxiliary burner. In doing so, both the energy use and CO2 emissions are noticeably reduced.
Following 3 years of measuring and monitoring, the data of thermal heat needs have exceeded the expectations. The average consumption of 2.6 litres per sqm of living area and year in the 3-litre-house is beneath the 3-litre limit. Compared to a not renovated old building, the consumption is reduced by seven to ten times.
| Jahr | Ereignis |
|---|---|
| 1997 | Estate modernization started |
| July 2000 | Start of conversion activities in the model building |
| April 2001 | Return of residents |
| 2004 | End of assessment period |
| 2006 | Planned finalization of estate modernization |
Source: LUWOGE
Source: LUWOGE
The project was supported under the funding programme “Experimental Housing and Urban Development" (Experimenteller Wohnungs- und Städtebau) of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate and included in the EU SUREURO (Sustainable Refurbishment Europe) project as a “best practice model”
The ecological and technical ambitions in the modernization of estate stock are a particularly notable aspect of this project. This concept is able to save about 80 % of the thermal heat needs in the ”Brunckviertel”. By using various newly developed materials and technologies and by monitoring their impact scientifically, the “3-litre house” in Ludwigshafen has become a model for future refurbishment projects carried out on old buildings. By now, this project has been accepted beyond Ludwigshafen and is reproduced. The success of this building is based on a modern energy concept which shows what can be done with innovative building material in the field of the refurbishment of old buildings.
The project location can be directly translated into Google-maps. Project in Google-Maps
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 67063 - town: Ludwigshafen - street: Eschenbachstraße 40.
Record inserted on 01.08.2004 by Lehrstuhl für Planungstheorie und Stadtplanung, RWTH Aachen and updated by theFederal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 26.07.2010
