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INFINITE

EU H2020 INFINITE - INDUSTRIALISED DURABLE BUILDING ENVELOPE RETROFITTING BY ALL-IN-ONE INTERCONNECTED TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

INFINITE aims at increasing the market penetration of industrialized all-in building envelope kits for the deep renovation, as competitive, reliable, stakeholders-accepted and life-cycle-based sustainable approach contributing to decarbonization of the EU building stock. INFINITE will work to narrow the gap towards the full adoption of an industrialized renovation approach developing a set of multi-user and multi-disciplinary tools, and all-in-one industrialised envelope technologies, based on robust business, meeting the demand side requirements, by keeping the focus on final users and all the stakeholders in the value-chain. Thanks to INFINITE, EU construction sector can take the chance to move forward towards a long-lasting decarbonisation of the building stock, exploiting the advantages of the “Renovation4.0” industrialisation + digitalisation) as new generation of industrialised renovation process. Demo-cases can validate the mentioned Renovation4.0 approach, while the consortium already well-established commercial channels in EU that will facilitate an extensive replication potential and effective results exploitation.

Project duration: November 2020 - April 2026
Project status:
Funding:
Competitive Industries (Horizon 2020 /EU funding /Project)
Total project budget: €10,148,199.12
Website: https://infinitebuildingrenovation.eu/
Institute: Institute for Renewable Energy

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Credit: Eurac Research | Ludovica Galeazzi

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Innovation in offsite deep retrofit: integrating BIPV in façades

Smart windows: how they have been integrated in building renovation?

Efficient, quiet, and invisible: integrating ventilation units in building retrofit

Industrialised deep renovation: when technology meets nature!

Riqualificazione profonda in 30 secondi: il demo INFINITE

Facciate integrate per il retrofit: come includere ventilazione, climatizzazione e fotovoltaico

400 m² di fotovoltaico installati tra tetto e facciata

Una sfida positiva: CASA SPA sul demo italiano di INFINITE

Industrialised Deep Retrofit Hub

The Industrialised Deep Retrofit Hub is an open online platform developed by Eurac Research within the INFINITE project to support the understanding and uptake of industrialised deep renovation of existing buildings.

The Hub brings together real renovation case studies, prefabricated envelope technologies and structured performance data, offering an evidence‑based view of how industrialised deep retrofit approaches work in practice.

Alongside technical content, it provides clear explanations that help users navigate key concepts such as renovation processes, business models and comparisons with traditional approaches.

Designed for professionals, public authorities, researchers and building owners, the Industrialised Deep Retrofit Hub makes renovation knowledge accessible, comparable and reusable, supporting informed decision‑making in building renovation.

Explore real projects, technologies and data on industrialised deep renovation.

Visit the Industrialised Deep Retrofit Hub.

Visit the IDR Hub

Scientific Output

Public deliverables are available in the INFINITE page on Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/communities/infinite/

Demo building data is available at the Industrialised Deep Retrofit Hub.

Scientific Publications

Journal article2026

A New Approach of Design for Disassembly Quantitative Assessment for Building Integrated Systems

Deru M, Roger P, Louvard M, Raji S, Brassier P, Gubert M, Zarei M

Martino Gubert

The building sector is responsible for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions, raw material usage, and waste generation, driving the need for new circular design strategies. Among these, Design for Disassembly (DfD) promotes the reuse, repair, and recycling of building components. However, existing quantitative DfD assessment methodologies generally require extensive preliminary studies, which limit their practical use. This article presents a new quantitative DfD assessment methodology developed within the EU-funded INFINITE project, which aims to provide designers with a simple yet robust tool to evaluate the detachability potential of building integrated systems without requiring prior environmental studies. This methodology has been designed to evaluate specific DfD scores for maintenance, reuse, and recycling, using the mass and lifespan of products or systems as weighting factors. The tool was tested and validated on several systems developed during the INFINITE project. In the specific case of the Building Integrated Solar Thermal (BIST) system, it successfully identified key design improvements—such as enhanced accessibility for maintenance operations and optimized component connections. Industrial partners reported high usability and recognized the tool as a valuable decision-support instrument during early development phases. Nevertheless, the assessment methodology also revealed some limitations related to the assessment of the specific components and end-of-life scenarios, and to the absence of a holistic evaluation of trade-offs between mass-based score and environmental impacts.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.3390/buildings16050917

Journal article2026

Experimental and Numerical Characterization of a Prefabricated Timber Facade with Integrated HVAC Unit

Messner B, Gubert M, Tamburrini D, Avesani S, Pernigotto G, Gasparella A, Demanega I

Ingrid Demanega, Martino Gubert, Diego Tamburrini

The built environment in the EU accounts for 40% of the total energy consumption and 36% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. To address the inefficiency of existing buildings, renovation could reduce their total energy consumption by 5–6% and lower carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 5%. A retrofit solution for existing buildings involves the use of lightweight prefabricated systems, some of which include integrated HVAC components that are able to enhance their functionality. Indeed, such prefabricated facade elements with integrated HVAC systems can represent a minimally invasive method for reducing the energy consumption of an existing building. To assess the potential of this approach, a full-scale mock-up of a prefabricated timber facade with integrated HVAC system was tested at the Facade System Interactions Lab (FSIL) of Eurac Research, Bolzano. The experimental data were used to develop a calibrated and validated 3D finite element model in COMSOL Multiphysics. The validated model was used to evaluate the facade’s thermal performance under standard heating conditions through a proposed equivalent thermal transmittance indicator (U_eq). Results show that the active facade achieves 0.07 W m⁻² K⁻¹, compared to 0.21 W m⁻² K⁻¹ for the passive facade with identical materials but without active components.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.3390/buildings16061177

Journal article2024

Experimental evaluation of the temperature related behaviour of pigment based coloured BIPV modules integrated in a ventilated façade

Pelle M, Gubert M, Dalla Maria E, Astigarraga A, Avesani S, Maturi L

Martino Gubert, Alexander Astigarraga, Laura Maturi, Enrico Dalla Maria, Martina Pelle

Coloured BIPV installations require an accurate balance between aesthetic and energy aspects. This study explores the integration of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) modules into building envelopes to enhance energy efficiency while maintaining aesthetic appeal. To achieve this goal, a real-scale mock-up was realized within the INFINITE project at the PV Integration Lab of Eurac Research to investigate the influence of aesthetic features (mainly given by different colors) on the energy performance of BIPV modules. Supported by an extensive monitoring campaign, this work delves into the performance of BIPV modules of five colors and finishes in both indoor and real exposure conditions. These modules serve as the outer layer of a prefabricated rain screen facade for building retrofitting. The study highlights that darker colors exhibit higher efficiency under standard test conditions but are also correlated with higher operating temperatures. Consequently, the differences in energy efficiency among the colors, observed during indoor tests, are significantly reduced when analyzing the energy produced under real exposure conditions. This observation underscores the intricate balance between maximizing energy generation and mitigating thermal stress on BIPV modules, while preserving aesthetic features. By providing empirical evidence of color-specific performance characteristics, this work offers insightful results for colored BIPV research and customized product optimization.

DOI Source

DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2024.114763

Journal article2023

Comparative cost analysis of traditional and industrialised deep retrofit scenarios for a residential building

Gubert M, Avesani S, Ngoyaro JA, Juaristi Gutierrez M, Pinotti R, Brandolini D

Martino Gubert, Miren Juaristi Gutierrez, Riccardo Pinotti

In this paper, the economic competitiveness for deep retrofit actions between the industrialised off-site and the traditional on-site approaches are discussed by using a comparative Life Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis. This assessment was based on a deep analysis of all renovation-related cost and timing processes, from design to operation and maintenance phases. The study was based on three retrofit scenarios for an existing building in Italy undergoing a deep renovation. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) was developed starting from real costs and a list of bills collected by the design team and the industrialised technologies developers. Afterwards, the LCC modelling was performed for all scenarios. The results show that the two deep retrofit approaches (traditional and industrialised) are comparable in terms of investment costs, even if a gap of around -7% and +16% still exists. This highlights a potential for technological optimisation. Moreover, the operation and maintenance phase has shown to be key to transforming the expected higher quality of the industrialised components into a prolonged life expectance, hence highly impacting the whole cumulated Net Present Value. Finally, the analysis of the End of Life (EoL) phase in case of possible reusing of some dismantled components in the industrialised scenario resulted in contributing in a relevant way to increase the final value of such an approach.

Special Issue Multifunctional Façades for Renovation through Industrialization

DOI Source

DOI: 10.47982/jfde.2023.2.A3

All Publications

La facciata diventa impianto: così l’HVAC integrato cambia il retrofit energetico degli edifici
Demanega I (2026)
Internet

More information: https://www.ingenio-web.it/articoli/facciate-attive-pref ...

Experimental and Numerical Characterization of a Prefabricated Timber Facade with Integrated HVAC Unit
Messner B, Gubert M, Tamburrini D, Avesani S, Pernigotto G, Gasparella A, Demanega I (2026)
MDPI AG
Journal article
Buildings

More information: https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16061177

https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16061177

A New Approach of Design for Disassembly Quantitative Assessment for Building Integrated Systems
Deru M, Roger P, Louvard M, Raji S, Brassier P, Gubert M, Zarei M (2026)
MDPI AG
Journal article
Buildings

More information: https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16050917

https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16050917

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Journal article2026

A New Approach of Design for Disassembly Quantitative Assessment for Building Integrated Systems

Deru M, Roger P, Louvard M, Raji S, Brassier P, Gubert M, Zarei M

Martino Gubert

DOI Source

DOI: 10.3390/buildings16050917

INFINITE