Techno-economic feasibility study for deep renovation of old apartment

Abstract

Old residential buildings are increasing worldwide, and renovations are being implemented to solve this problem. Deep renovation methods, including horizontal expansion and vertical extension, are currently being used. Such methods are extensive in scale and entail significant technical challenges. It is therefore necessary to analyze economic feasibility while considering technical and financial aspects in projects’ initial stages, which this study attempted to address through various research methods. First, technical feasibility evaluation criteria, construction cost by activities, artificial neural network analysis, and cost-benefit analysis are combined to build a framework for the techno-economic feasibility study. Second, 15 apartment examples are evaluated using the research framework. Third, in-depth expert interviews are conducted to verify the validity of the model. In the study, the benefit-cost ratio was derived for 15 case-study apartments by applying the technical economic feasibility study framework, and more than 2/3 of the apartment complexes were found to be unsuitable for deep renovation. The research results showed that there is a difference from previous studies that only considered the feasibility of the existing remodeling technology, suggesting that an alternative renovation strategy is required for apartment complexes where deep renovation is not possible. Thus, the proposed framework can be used as a quantitative evaluation tool for feasibility analyses of deep renovation. Additionally, it can serve as a useful guideline for construction management experts and architects regarding management of old residential buildings.