Risk analysis

The design, use and maintenance of buildings and building service systems have become more and more complex, in the sense of management of information and knowledge. The systematical risk management methods and applications are sophisticated ways to evaluate and manage the risks.

When planning a new building or renovation of the existing buildings, the best possibilities to effect on the costs, performance and conditions of the building is the predesign and design phase. If the requirements for the building are properly set and also the possible evident risks have been evaluated, the implementation of the conditions and their matching to needs and requirements can be checked following a commissioning procedure (or, in general, mutually accepted quality control procedure)  The main reasons, why the building does not fulfil the prerequisites can be divided roughly into three parts: 1) faults in predesign and design stage, 2) defects in implementation stages and 3) malfunctions in TAB (testing-adjusting-balancing) and in use stage. The energy performance, energy efficiency and indoor conditions, as thermal comfort and indoor air quality, depend on the proper integration of building envelope, functioning of the ventilation system, heating systems, cooling systems, BAS (building automation system) and internal and external loads (weather conditions, use, etc). The crucial matter is how the operations of these factors are integrated together, and how these factors will cohere. In the predesign phase, the building owner should set his requirements and demands as well as possible matching the needs. The problem has been earlier, that these requirements have not been properly set. In some cases, for instance, when planning a shopping mall or commercial building, the owner probably does not know the final users, or not all of them. The needs of individual end users may vary, which would cause e.g. the use of distributed ventilation system.

Renovation offers an ideal opportunity to improve the performance and value of a building.

The design, use and maintenance of buildings and their installed systems have become increasingly complex and require more careful management to achieve the desired results. Risk management involves the implementation of procedures and tools to identify and minimise the risks associated with a project. It is fundamental to the successful delivery of renovation projects.

The risk management process is illustrated in the diagram below.

The planning and design stages offer the best opportunity to optimise the energy performance of the building when embarking on new builds or renovations. Risk assessments must be completed throughout the life of the project to maximise the chances of successful delivery.

This tool focuses on the technical risks associated with improving the energy performance of renovated buildings and examines methods for completing systematic assessments in the planning and operational stages.