Health and wellbeing lens of the national existing building database in Scotland.

Blazusiak, Magdalena; Scott, Jonathan

Abstract

Reliability of data is one of the most important factors determining cost and successful project planning in the social and public sector. Understanding condition, construction methods, trigger points and contextual environmental, climatic and deprivation data can also profoundly impact on the risk mitigation and evaluation of whole building approaches to retrofit. This paper explores the value of contextual information and outputs beyond carbon reduction driven fabric improvements alone. It evaluates what a National Existing Building Database (NEBD) could offer for the social sustainability outcomes, supporting holistic approaches to neighbourhood scale retrofit and promoting cross-sectoral collaboration. The implications of novel approach to data collection and management could include evidence-based policy development, informed mitigation of risks, scalability of approaches stimulating local networks, skill and supply chains for a socially sensitive delivery of retrofit at scale. The study focused on the social housing sector in Scotland, which has clear guidelines on implementation of energy efficiency measures aligned with forthcoming net-zero legislative changes. The data was collected through a series of 3 interactive stakeholder workshops, with participants directly and indirectly involved in retrofit, upgrading and management of existing social housing assets in Scotland. Questions in discussions varied from current practice and reliability of data, to what the database capabilities could mean in a cross-sectoral approach, identifying health and wellbeing as one of the key outcomes. The quantitative questionnaire (n59) was the result of the discussions, recommendations and recognised limitations of a database. The questionnaire was distributed after two workshops, where the last interactive workshop offered an opportunity to review the results and discuss further recommendations for next phases of the project beyond feasibility.

Citation

BLAZUSIAK, M. and SCOTT, J. 2025. Health and wellbeing lens of the national existing building database in Scotland. In Kouider, T. and Galiano Garrigós, A. (eds.) Proceedings of the 11th International congress on architectural technology 2025 (ICAT 2025): buildings fit for climate change, 15-17 May 2025, Alicante, Spain. San Vicente del Raspeig: Universidad de Alicante [online], pages 185-197. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154590

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 11th International congress on architectural technology 2025 (ICAT 2025): building fit for climate change
• Start Date: May 15, 2025
• End Date: May 17, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 10, 2025
• Publication Date: May 31, 2025
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 16, 2025
• Publisher: Universidad de Alicante
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 185-197
• ISBN: 9788413023182
• Keywords: Retrofit; National existing building database; Health and wellbeing; Social sustainability; Social housing; Neighbourhood scale retrofit; Fuel poverty; Quality of life; People-centred approach
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2481341
• Additional Information: The full proceedings of this conference is available from http://rua.ua.es/dspace/handle/10045/154489
• External URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154590
• Other Repo URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154590