Beyond Energy Efficiency: Integrating Health, Building Pathology, and Community Through the Building Identity Passport for Prefabricated Housing

Abstract

The preservation of architectural heritage must extend beyond historic city centres to include the large-scale prefabricated housing stock that characterises many post-socialist urban environments. These structures, often overlooked, hold both material and social value. This study focuses on prefabricated residential buildings and proposes a scalable methodology for sustainable rehabilitation through a prototype tool: the building identity passport (BIP). The proposed approach integrates multi-layered diagnostics—combining building integrated modelling (BIM), thermographic surveys, occupant questionnaires, and expert interviews—into a replicable decision-support framework. Results demonstrate that the passport can synthesise tangible (physical) and intangible (perceptual, social) resources of prefabricated blocks into a coherent framework, highlighting both technical pathologies and lived experiences. Thermographic validation of BIM simulations confirms the feasibility of combining digital and on-site diagnostics, while community surveys and expert insights reveal the tensions between comfort, health, and energy efficiency. The resulting prototype provides a transparent overview of building identity, making rehabilitation strategies easier to compare, communicate, and adapt. Beyond its local application, the study underscores the broader replicability of the method: core diagnostic layers remain constant, while context-sensitive indicators can be tailored to different regions. The proposed framework thus offers municipalities and communities a practical tool to align rehabilitation with circular resource use and occupant well-being. Future work will focus on automating data processing and extending validation to diverse housing contexts, strengthening its potential as a platform for sustainable urban regeneration.