In order to counter climate change many approaches have been taken to make
the building sector more sustainable. But for porch houses there aren't many
solutions on the market. This research project uses one of the approaches that
is does focus on porch houses, 2ndskin. In march 2018 a demonstrator project
has been build in Vlaardingen using the 2ndskin approach. The research found a
problem with integrating the installations, they took up a lot of space and were so heavy that an extra foundation was needed. This problem is not unique to 2ndskin or the zero-on-the-meter renovations of porch houses, it's a problem in other sustainable projects as well. Therefore this research has looked into the following problem:

The installations needed to renovate a post-war porch house in accordance with the 2ndskin approach are too heavy and take up a lot of valuable space.

Current systems have been analyzed in order to solve this problem. The
comparison of these systems unveiled the main causes of the size and weight
of these systems: Empty space between the installations, placement of the
connections, required space for installation and maintenance, the kind of
installations used and the integration between them. In the end three concepts
where presented. Prioritizing different aims, the concepts show different ways
to integrate the installations according to different priorities.. For the 2ndskin
demonstrator project these concepts show that its possible to decrease the by
50% to 70% and the weight by 30% to 60%. The amount of possible decrease
depends on the priorities within the project. But, smaller installations spaces are
possible when designing from within the installations instead of around it.