Refurbishment of an industral estate into housing complex in Belgrade: economic and environmental aspects

Abstract

Environmental and ecologic aspects of a building refurbishment design can often be confronted in making decisions whether to rebuild or reconstruct in practice. In most cases the economic aspects overcome in the decision making process in practice and therefore all environmental benefits from the process of reconstruction just follow the economic drivers. This paper presents an analysis of both of these aspects in a case study refurbishment project of an industrial estate located in downtown Belgrade and its transformation into an exclusive housing complex. Basic characteristics of this refurbishment process are defined through analysis of its functional, structural and environmental aspects. Then two scenarios for analyses are defined: the first is the existing scenario (some buildings are refurbished, some demolished and rebuilt) and the second, hypothetical, where the entire complex is demolished and rebuilt. These analyses result in some environmental indicators of the refurbishment process (amount of saved energy and waste) which are compared to their economic feedback.