Post.doc project: Climate adaptation by maintenance and upgrading of existing buildings

The scope of the postdoc research topic is climate adaptation through maintenance and upgrading of existing buildings. The main ambition is to enable implementation of innovative technical solutions through analysis of framework conditions within the construction industry, Jardar Lohne will also contribute in educating of the Centre’s high amount of Ph.D Candidates.

Climate changes affect the built environment in different ways, such as enhanced precipitations and floodwater. The capacity to actually implement innovative solutions at a large scale is surprisingly feeble within the construction industry. This concerns in particular the maintenance and upgrading of existing buildings.  

Technical solutions to challenges and contractual strategies for implementing these – that is, innovation – abound, but there is a clear gap between the potential of the identified solutions and actual processes within the industry. A much-held view is that such behaviour stems from the conservative nature of the industry actors, preferring to minimizing risk by following well-established procedures. In our opinion, this explanation does not suffice to account for the observed behaviour. Rather, there seems to be deep, structural challenges hindering innovation (both concerning process and in technical solutions). 

The post.doc.-project of Jardar Lohne will examine framework conditions to the implementation of innovation (both concerning construction process and technical solutions), aiming to improve the envelope of the already existing building mass.  

The research takes on the following sub-studies: 

1. Innovative execution models for maintenance and upgrading of existing building mass.
2. Supply chain management for innovative technical solutions.
3. Actor-network analysis with the ambition to identifying organisational hindrances to implementation of innovative technical solutions.
4. Governance framework analysis for maintenance and upgrading of existing building mass.