REHOUSE Renovation Packages are “people first” designed, so they are faster, cleaner, and genuinely better to live with.
If you’ve ever lived through a renovation, you know the real “cost” isn’t merely invoices. It’s the noise, dust, schedule slips, and the constant feeling that your home is no longer yours. The REHOUSE approach starts from that everyday reality and asks: what if renovation worked more like a well-planned product rollout-industrialised, digital, circular-and still centred on people?
Focusing on façades, this is where renovation often becomes slow and disruptive. By combining innovative Renovation Packages with innovative social approaches, the REHOUSE project places the well-being of end-users and the active involvement of stakeholders at its core. This ensures the creation of sustainable, energy-efficient buildings designed to meet the needs of everyone, with a special focus on supporting vulnerable populations.
Background of the renovation package
The Renovation Package “the Adaptable/Dynamic Building Envelope (ADBE)”, is designed to flip that script with a modular, prefabricated envelope that can adapt to different geometries and is built around recyclable aluminium. Components are manufactured off-site, delivered ready-to-install and mounted with cranes-reducing the need for heavy scaffolding and keeping time “in front of people’s windows” to a minimum.
What makes this Renovation Package especially? It is its multi-functionality. Conceived as a holistic envelope that can combine Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) and battery storage, house HVAC ducts/technical facilities and embed sensors and actuators so residents and owners can actively manage comfort and energy use. It’s also engineered with robustness in mind (weather, fire, earthquake) and with practical maintenance access to the integrated technical modules.
Key takeaways for the future
Our takeaways so far are that a façade’s performance depends as much on delivery as it does on design. Keeping a clean BIM-to-as-built handover reduces installation surprises, tackling permits. Early compliance prevents delays and involving tenants up-front is essential when you’re working on the part of the building they live behind every day.
Overall, the impact is straightforward. We have now reached the Technology Readiness Level of 7, which means our solution is to set up in an operational environment, in true scale, well integrated with a safety and assistance system. For RENEL, the current real-life validation of the adaptable façade solution allows to increase the technical maturity and the readiness for a wider market development and potential replication processes.
REHOUSE helps turn an advanced façade idea into a replicable, evidence-backed package with a route to industrialisation, guidelines, and business thinking that support future uptake. And for Europe, the Adaptable/Dynamic Building Envelope (ADBE) directly addresses the bigger prize: faster renovation with less tenant disturbance, supporting productivity targets while enabling on-site renewables and circularity in the envelope value chain.
Author: Salim Fachouri, Deputy Innovation Manager at RENEL
Interested in more? Read our previous blog article from December 2025 about Renovation Package 2: BLOG: Adaptable Dynamic Building Envelope from construction to performance – REHOUSE
More about the project partner:
Website: https://www.renel.gr/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/renel/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renelengineering/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renelengineering/
