Decarb Garden City

The project covers the energetic modernization and refurbishment of a 1930’s building ensemble (including two new buildings) with 316 old and 74 new apartments in the south of Berlin, Germany. The project is based on the usage, storage and management of regenerative energy earnings and -in combination with heat pumps- and on using them to produce heating with extremly low carbon dioxide emissions. That had to be reached with the goal of a very moderate, socially just rent increase. In addition the construction of new attic flats creates new living space in the growing city without additional sealing.

The 80 year old buildings needed an all-out refurbishment and modernization which could have resulted in a standard modernization with a moderate saving of energy and a high rent increase. The owner, a co-op with a long history (Märkische Scholle eG), decided to take a more forward-looking approach and followed our concept of an optimized combination of insulation, renewable energy sources and heat pump technology.

Over the past 5 years the site helped advance the fields of innovative Heat Pump and storage Systems and enabled the planer to optimize further energy consumption and investment as the construction went on. This was possible due to an ongoing monitoring, close analysis of energy usage and further development of the system due to an open minded thought process.