The kick off meeting of the project RENEW SCHOOL was held in Graz, Austria. The main objective of the project, funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe program, is to promote hi energy performance school buildings retrofit using prefabricated insulated timber modules. Although this technique is spreading mainly in the countries of Central and Northern Europe where the tradition of using wood is larger, it can actually be used in all climatic zones in Europe. The advantages of this technique are: the use of eco-friendly materials, speed of completion, the non-invasiveness of the interventions in the inner parts of the buildings, the possibility of integrating within the modular facade the ventilation systems and renewable energy sources, the certainty of costs.

Renew School aims to promote this system of modular wooden facades, creating an information platform on the technical aspects and organizational and financial options (PPP or PPPP), to inform and support the administrations responsible for school buildings in their decision making processes. The project aims to promote an active dialogue between individual stakeholders (owners and financiers of schools, offices, schools, companies, designers, families) in order to identify opportunities and problems of the proposed technique.

The partnership, with a relevant presence of North European partners, involves institutions and universities that deal with energy efficiency and indoor quality and comfort. The lead partner is the AEE – Institute for Nachhaltige Technologien from Graz.