The shaping of new sustainable housing concepts in Denmark

JAOCC – Aalborg - 10 June 2009 – Session 43

Michael Søgaard Jørgensen Department of Management Engineering

Technical University of Denmark (msj@man.dtu.dk)

Preliminary results from research project

• Other members of project group:– Jesper Ole Jensen, National Building Research Institute, Aalborg

University, Denmark– Erik Hagelskjær Lauridsen, Department of Management

Engineering, Technical University of Denmark– Maj-Britt Quitzau, Department of Management Engineering,

Technical University of Denmark– Morten Elle, Department of Management Engineering,

Technical University of Denmark– Annette Bilfeldt, Department of Management Engineering,

Technical University of Denmark• Funding: Realdania + Aase & Ejnar Danielsens Fund

Project focus

• A number of new sustainable housing projects– Although the existing buildings are more important…

• What type of actors are initiating this kind of housing projects and why?

• What type of actors and entities are involved in the planning of the houses – Interactions taking place?– New or existing relations?

• What role has standards played in the planning of the houses? • What issues in relation to resource consumption and

environmental impact have been addressed? What strategies were developed for these issues?

Theoretical framework• Theories within the approach of social shaping of technology (SST)• Each sustainable housing project is seen as part of an ongoing

interaction between – Environmental discourses – Environmental strategies, – The dynamics of the construction sector– The dynamics of municipalities – The dynamics of living conditions

• Focus on the development of scripts for a housing project, – including the role of boundary objects and brokers, and product chains

• Case-based linked to mechanisms of diffusion of strategies within a sector:– coming from ‘where’ – going to ‘where’

Different initiators to new sustainable housing projects:

• Municipal administrative staff in order to influence future construction of houses in the local area

• Local green intermediary in order to make sustainable houses which may attract ordinary citizens

• Building component company in order to initiate development of new building concepts

• Co-operative housing association to support development of more sustainable housing concepts

Enrolling actors in housing projects

• Enrolling politicians• Enrolling construction companies• Enrolling citizens• Shaped by other agendas:– Attraction of strong citizens to local area– Demand and supply within the housing market

The role of standards, concepts etc.

• The new Danish construction guidelines for new houses with stronger demands for the energy consumption and efficiency

• The new Nordic eco-labeling guidelines for family houses

• Local guidelines for housing projects • Internal company standards for houses: focus

on existing suppliers• The passive house concept

Sustainability focus

• Mainly energy focus• Some focus on building materials and their

environmental and health impacts (PVC etc.)

Type of innovation

• Sticking to existing concept that is modified as little as possible

• Enrolling foreign architect in order to get beyond ’the too traditional Danish architects’

• Need for more research in the mechanisms of innovation and diffusion

What environmental advantages are achieved?

• Achieving the predicted low energy consumption was difficult in a project

• Another project showed attempts from the construction company to ensure the predicted low energy consumption– Providing instructions for use and maintenance

• Need for more detailed studies of the citizens’ actual domestication of new sustainable houses– Design-in-use– Description of the developed script for a housing project

• Understand those processes by which technologies are made to work (or not work) and are given meaning by households through acquisition, placement, interpretation and integration.