IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i19p8179-d423598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A User-Oriented Ethnographic Approach to Energy Renovation Projects in Multiapartment Buildings

Author

Listed:
  • Davide Prati

    (Dipartimento di Architettura, Università di Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy)

  • Stefania Spiazzi

    (ATER Venezia, Dorsoduro 3507, Fondamenta del Magazen, 30123 Venezia, Italy)

  • Gregor Cerinšek

    (IRI-UL Ljubljana, Univerza v Ljubljani, Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • Annarita Ferrante

    (Dipartimento di Architettura, Università di Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy)

Abstract

The paper presents the activities related to ethnographic research in the Italian demo-case adapted to the needs of the TripleA-reno EU project (Affordable, Attractive, Accessible deep renovation). The overall study methodology is focused on the four phases of the People-centered development strategy, which focuses on the core idea that “knowing people” should become an integral part of energy renovation development processes as a means of achieving new categories of products, services, or business strategies. Ethnography is a typical methodology of anthropology. It is based primarily on the end-users observation, during which the researcher is directly involved in the daily activities, interactions, and events of a group of people. Involvement is intended as a means to learn the explicit and hidden aspects of an end-user’s daily life. The primary objective is to understand interactions between building occupants and the building itself, as well as their relationships and roles within the renovation processes. Implementing this research in the Italian case study has made it possible to form a knowledge base on the opinions of the subjects involved at the national level. The application of simplified ethnography methods combined with an appropriately studied questionnaire, conveyed through a web form, allowed for gathering useful information. The quantitative questionnaire data collected were then compared with the open-ended interviews collected from the residents of the Italian demo case building that was undergoing a forthcoming renovation. By confronting European, national, and demo case levels, it was possible to verify how the resident attitudes change concerning the energy renovation processes once directly involved. The aim was to understand which most stimulating factors have to be considered in order to make the end-user onboarding and renovation project experience more affordable, attractive, and accessible.

Suggested Citation

  • Davide Prati & Stefania Spiazzi & Gregor Cerinšek & Annarita Ferrante, 2020. "A User-Oriented Ethnographic Approach to Energy Renovation Projects in Multiapartment Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8179-:d:423598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8179/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8179/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Hobman, Elizabeth V., 2015. "Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1385-1394.
    2. Janda, Kathryn B., 2014. "Building communities and social potential: Between and beyond organizations and individuals in commercial properties," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 48-55.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guibentif, Thomas M.M. & Patel, Martin K. & Yilmaz, Selin, 2021. "Using energy saving deficit distributions to assess calculated, deemed and metered electricity savings estimations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    2. Theo Lynn & Pierangelo Rosati & Antonia Egli & Stelios Krinidis & Komninos Angelakoglou & Vasileios Sougkakis & Dimitrios Tzovaras & Mohamad Kassem & David Greenwood & Omar Doukari, 2021. "RINNO: Towards an Open Renovation Platform for Integrated Design and Delivery of Deep Renovation Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Guorui Chen & Li Cheng & Foyuan Li, 2022. "Integrating Sustainability and Users’ Demands in the Retrofit of a University Campus in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-21, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deborah F Coldwell & Karl L Evans, 2017. "Contrasting effects of visiting urban green-space and the countryside on biodiversity knowledge and conservation support," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Jihyo Kim & Suhyeon Nam, 2021. "Do Household Time, Risk, and Social Preferences Affect Home Energy Retrofit Decisions in Korea?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Xu, Xiaojing & Chen, Chien-fei, 2019. "Energy efficiency and energy justice for U.S. low-income households: An analysis of multifaceted challenges and potential," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 763-774.
    4. Sam Hampton & Richard Blundel & Aqueel Wahga & Tina Fawcett & Christopher Shaw, 2022. "Transforming small and medium‐sized enterprises to address the climate emergency: The case for values‐based engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1424-1439, September.
    5. Anna Borawska & Mariusz Borawski & Małgorzata Łatuszyńska, 2022. "Effectiveness of Electricity-Saving Communication Campaigns: Neurophysiological Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Halkos, George & Managi, Shunsuke, 2023. "New developments in the disciplines of environmental and resource economics," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 513-522.
    7. Nolan Ritter & Julia Anna Bingler, 2021. "Do homo sapiens know their prices? Insights on dysfunctional price mechanisms from a large field experiment," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 21/348, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    8. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    9. Loi, Tian Sheng Allan & Loo, Soh Leng, 2016. "The impact of Singapore’s residential electricity conservation efforts and the way forward. Insights from the bounds testing approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 735-743.
    10. Fouladvand, Javanshir & Aranguren Rojas, Maria & Hoppe, Thomas & Ghorbani, Amineh, 2022. "Simulating thermal energy community formation: Institutional enablers outplaying technological choice," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    11. Luciano Cavalcante Siebert & Alexandre Rasi Aoki & Germano Lambert-Torres & Nelson Lambert-de-Andrade & Nikolaos G. Paterakis, 2020. "An Agent-Based Approach for the Planning of Distribution Grids as a Socio-Technical System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-13, September.
    12. Goggins, Gary & Rau, Henrike & Moran, Paul & Fahy, Frances & Goggins, Jamie, 2022. "The role of culture in advancing sustainable energy policy and practice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Lubis, D. & Dewi, M.R. & Asmara, A., 2024. "Determinants of food waste behavior on Muslim Generation Z in Padang City, Indonesia," ASEAN University for Sustainable Food System, Faculty of Economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand, April 18-19, 2024 344459, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
    14. Daminato, Claudio & Diaz-Farina, Eugenio & Filippini, Massimo & Padrón-Fumero, Noemi, 2021. "The impact of smart meters on residential water consumption: Evidence from a natural experiment in the Canary Islands," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Luis Felipe Giraldo & Kevin M Passino, 2017. "Dynamics of Cooperation in a Task Completion Social Dilemma," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, January.
    16. Sylwia Słupik & Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz & Joanna Trzęsiok, 2021. "Energy-Related Behaviour of Consumers from the Silesia Province (Poland)—Towards a Low-Carbon Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    17. Johansen, Katinka & Johra, Hicham, 2022. "A niche technique overlooked in the Danish district heating sector? Exploring socio-technical perspectives of short-term thermal energy storage for building energy flexibility," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    18. Fang, Ximeng & Goette, Lorenz & Rockenbach, Bettina & Sutter, Matthias & Tiefenbeck, Verena & Schoeb, Samuel & Staake, Thorsten, 2023. "Complementarities in behavioral interventions: Evidence from a field experiment on resource conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    19. Petricli, Gulcan & Inkaya, Tulin & Gokay Emel, Gul, 2024. "Identifying green citizen typologies by mining household-level survey data," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    20. Apergis, Nicholas & Hayat, Tasawar & Kadasah, Nasser A., 2019. "Subjective well-being in housing purchasing: Evidence with survey data from the U.K. housing residential market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 328-335.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8179-:d:423598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.