HAPPEN aspires to contribute to increasing the radical renovation of housing in the Mediterranean. From Greece, the Building Environment Studies Group of the Faculty of Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Aegean Energy & Environment Bureau and DAFNI Network, as an associate partner, participate in the project with an aim to transfer knowledge to member islands.

HAPPEN aspires to provide answers on how the Mediterranean’s building stock can become radically energy efficient, offering significant economic, environmental and social benefits.

The project will develop one-stop-shop solutions (technical, investment, institutional) that will be piloted in 9 buildings. Buildings differ considerably in size, usage, age, upgrading needs, etc. Specifically, 3 large-scale interventions in and around residential complexes are envisaged: Castellòn de la Plana (Valencia, Spain), Les Crottes (Marseilles, France) and Riqualifichiamo in comune (Milan, Italy), while the other 5 pilots foresee smaller interventions to private and public buildings, among which there are municipality hostels in Kos and Nisyros.

AEEA and DAFNI will coordinate actions in these buildings, demonstrating the challenges of radically renovating buildings due to the particular conditions prevailing in island regions, as well as the added value of such interventions for local development.

The resulting solutions will be adapted to the climatic conditions and the economic environment of the Mediterranean, thus contributing towards the participating countries better implementing the European Directive on the energy performance of buildings, which requires all new buildings to be Near Zero Energy Efficiency Buildings (nZEB) as of 1 January 2021, while for new buildings hosting public and wider government authorities this obligation comes into force on 1 January 2019.

In order to raise awareness among end users, to identify obstacles and to collect proposals on upgrading the specific buildings, participatory workshops are organised on each pilot with all relevant stakeholders, notably owners/managers and end users of buildings, as well as companies providing energy, technology services etc.