European rural areas will boost when their natural resources constitute the basis of innovative and sustainable value chains with a high positive economic impact. In this sense, forests constitute an asset that provide not only ecosystems and biodiversity, but also a valuable and sustainable raw material, “wood”. Wood is consumed by various sectors, including one of the most “raw materials” demanding sector, the construction. The BASAJAUN project is a puzzle composed of 1st and 2nd transformation companies, research organizations, associations and public bodies that are focused on maximizing the forest value through its use in wood construction. Its main goal is to optimize the wood forest resources to enable the construction of a medium sized building (16 dwellings with 4 floors) with the lowest possible forest hectares – that will depends on the tree species and the forest local peculiarities (climate, surface, ..). The whole process will be optimised to maximize the consumption of wood products from the forest (solid wood, fibers, veneers, bark, sawdust, etc.). For this purpose, a) innovative wood-based construction materials (thermal insulation, composites, varnishes, SIPs) and systems (structure, facades, floors, walls, roof and fixings) will be developed and upscaled, b) two full -scale demo buildings (Finland and France) that use those products will be constructed, c) digitalization of the whole construction value chain (from forest to building) will be done and d) the rural development impact will be studied at regional level. The environmental impact of the products of these value chains will be assessed as well. Besides, to assure a sustainable impact of the project a novel thematic platform to integrate the stakeholders of the wood region with urban areas will be developed. Besides, BASAJAUN leverages the previous results of successful projects where the innovative materials and systems were designed at laboratory and semi-industrial scale.

ENSNARE’s main objective is to boost the implementation of renovation packages through (1) the digitalisation of the entire process by means of a digital platform and (2) the development of an industrialised envelope mesh enabling fast assembly and interconnection of passive and multifunctional building components. The methodology and tools provided will facilitate the necessary market uptake of novel and highly efficient solutions for nZEB, accelerating the current retrofitting rate and supporting the transformation of the European building stock into a highly efficient and technologically advanced built environment. Within a comprehensive systemic approach, the project will target the development of modular adaptable components to be integrated within the system (rather than marketed as standalone products that increase the cost and complexity of the system), including an active window for ventilation and heat recovery, solar harvesting devices (thermal collectors, PV and hybrid panels with advanced technologies such as roll-bonding), heat pumps and energy batteries for load shifting. The digital platform will comprise a set of digital tools supporting and accelerating all stages for a more efficient renovation process: automated data acquisition, LCA/LCC analysis and decision support, digital BIM model building and computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM), and a smart building management system (sBMS) for optimised operation and maintenance. All these tools are linked to a digital model, which increases in complexity and interaction potentialities as the project develops. At completion, the model becomes a Digital Twin of the renovated building allowing real-time monitorization, simulation and optimised operation of all building components. The ENSNARE solution will be validated through three pilot renovation projects covering Nordic, Continental and Mediterranean climates, and three virtual demonstration buildings aimed at upscaling the development of the solution.

AEGIR’s main objective is to demonstrate a scalable, industrialised, smart, non-intrusive, quick, and affordable four-packaged renovation solution to boost the take up of deep retrofitting achieving nearly zerAEGIR main objective is to demonstrate a physical and digital sustainable framework that boosts the take up of deep retrofitting achieving nearly zero energy buildings. This approach is supported by (i) innovative, industrialized, high performance and non-intrusive multifunctional plug-and-play envelope solutions to increase the use of locally deployed renewable technologies. These solutions can also be modulated depending on the requirements of the target buildings. (ii) A digital ecosystem of services to improve the whole construction workflow (from design, manufacturing, construction, and operation) reducing costs with a sustainable approach. And (iii) a socio-economic model providing financial schemes and business models at building scale. To demonstrate these objectives the project will deploy all these solutions in four demos (Spain, France, Denmark, and Romania) mixing the retrofitting actions which will use the solutions in four different climates. The demos combine different building typologies (multi-family buildings, educational buildings, offices, and single-family buildings) to proof the concept in buildings and tenants with different requirements. One of the demos (Denmark) is social housing so the intention of the project is to demonstrate that these solutions are feasible for the more demanding public. A second demo is a public school to demonstrate the improved air quality and comfort provided by the solution to solve many of the air quality/ventilation problems in this type of buildings. The project involves all the actors from the construction and energy management value chain with local and international SMEs, large companies, public authorities. Local and international clusters are also included to verify the developments at European level.

AMALTEA’s main objective is to streamline the use of robotics, AI and data in the construction sector to reduce the energy use, resources and waste, increase safety, and improve processes’ reliability and product quality to adapt to the new demands from end users and Green Deal objectives. For that, the curtain-wall façade value chain will be reshaped by digitalizing the design, manufacturing, installation and disassembly/recycling phases. This approach is supported by the development and combination of several digital tools that will be integrated, together with technical solutions provided by SMEs and start-ups through FSTP, in Digital Solutions that will be validated in four pilots to improve the sustainability, efficiency, safety and automation of the façade value chain, and thus, building construction. The global solution will consider human in the loop for collaborative robotics and will use existing technologies to guarantee the safety use of the data across the entire process. Piloting will include: 1) AI parametric design and extended digital twin with all the data workflows along the façade value chain, 2) Digitalized façade manufacturing line in FDB facilities in Hungary, 3) and 4) Implementation of the solutions in operational construction environments (Residential/Hospital typology in the South of Europe and Offices/Tertiary typology in the Center of Europe). The project involves companies from all necessary disciplines, including: design, AI and data, robotics, manufacturing, construction, SSH (to have special care related to the communication between humans and the technologies developed). Additionally, the project will establish a collaboration with external SMEs (up to 25 projects) across Europe through a FSTP scheme to improve all the challenges defined.