Façade Leasing

Façade Leasing: Drivers and barriers to the delivery of integrated Façades-as-a-Service

Azcarate Aguerre, J.F. (TU Delft Building Product Innovation)
Klein, T. (TU Delft Building Product Innovation)
den Heijer, A.C. (TU Delft Real Estate Management)
Vrijhoef, R. (TU Delft Design & Construction Management)
Ploeger, H.D. (TU Delft OLD Geo-information and Land Development)
Prins, M. (TU Delft Design & Construction Management)

2018-10

The construction and renovation of the building envelope represents a significant fraction of a project’s life-cycle costs. It also has a determinant effect on the potential reduction in energy use, as well as on the improvement of the building’s indoor comfort. Nevertheless, the challenge of a low rate and depth in building energy renovations cannot be solved through technological innovation alone. Instead, the Façade Leasing research project proposes a systemic shift in economic and business incentives, towards the creation of a performance-based contracting model for integrated façades.

Façade Leasing explores an integral, cross-disciplinary model promoting accelerated strategic investment in energy-efficient building envelopes. A focus on performance delivery, rather than product sales, would in turn impulse ongoing innovation in products and management processes. It would also provide the foundations for Circular Economy strategies for the reuse and remanufacturing of building components, leading to a potential reduction in primary raw material consumption across the façade industry.

This study starts by describing the “Façade Leasing pilot project” developed and built at the TU Delft campus by a consortium of açademic and industry partners. It then outlines the main drivers and barriers to the commercial application of the Façade-as-a-Service concept in the Dutch public, nonresidential real estate sector, from the perspective of four key stakeholder groups: Demand drive, or the decision-making process of real estate developers, owners, and managers; Supplier readiness, or the necessary reorganization of products and processes along the supply-chain; Finance, or the distribution of financial resources bridging the gap between initial investment cost and longterm service fees; and governance, or the necessary regulatory innovation required to separate ownership of building and façade.

The research shows that, while further research and validation work is needed to test these principles in a controlled, case-study setting, the potential for façade-as-a-service delivery is within reach under the current legal and economic environment.

performance contracting
facade leasing
circular economy
integrated facades

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c3de847d-d66e-4729-81e4-0f1358c57210

1877-9700

Real Estate Research Quarterly, 17 (3), 11-22

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2018 J.F. Azcarate Aguerre, T. Klein, A.C. den Heijer, R. Vrijhoef, H.D. Ploeger, M. Prins