BUPs is working to accelerate deep renovations across Europe by promoting industrialized and circular solutions. Prefabricated modules, modular construction, digital tools, and circular economy principles form the backbone of this approach. These methods deliver tangible benefits: they shorten construction time, reduce costs, improve worker safety, and ensure better accuracy while generating less waste. In short, industrialized solutions offer a new way to rethink how we renovate buildings.
A key focus of the project has been to define what “industrialized innovation” really means in practice. Partners from Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain came together in collaborative workshops to share experiences and expertise. They explored themes such as modular and prefabricated products, circular demolition, architectural quality, digitalization, and innovative financing schemes. Each ecosystem contributed unique know-how, from prefabricated wooden modules and recovery-oriented demolition to crowdfunding models for energy retrofits. These exchanges not only helped identify opportunities and barriers but also built a common language around industrialized renovation in Europe.
One of the main outcomes achieved in these first two years projects is the Catalogue of innovative products and best practices. More than a simple collection, the catalogue is a practical guide of existing innovative products, tools and processes, already developed and adopted at EU level. The catalogue is designed for practitioners, communities, and policymakers. Presenting real examples, it wants to demonstrate how innovative products and solutions can help the traditional construction and renovation processes, showing their benefits (e.g. aesthetics, economic, time, safety…), technical details, and minimum requirements. Each entry provides the information needed to replicate and adapt solutions across different building types and climate zones. By showing how industrialized renovation works in practice, the catalogue highlights its value in reducing errors, cutting costs, and improving both energy performance and indoor comfort.
Across Europe, the five BuildUPspeed ecosystems are already putting these ideas into practice.
Yet technology alone cannot drive transformation. The success of BuildUPspeed also relies on involvement of different stakeholders and share of them knowledge and know-how already acquired. Engaging local communities, residents, building owners, and construction companies ensures that solutions respond to real needs. Collaboration with multidisciplinary experts helps make these solutions feasible and widely accepted. Just as importantly, working with policymakers is crucial to creating regulations that favour circular construction and industrialized renovation methods.
By connecting ecosystems, showcasing best practices, and providing tools for replication, BuildUPspeed is paving the way for a new generation of building renovation in Europe. Faster, cleaner, and smarter, these approaches will help transform Europe’s homes, schools, and workplaces into sustainable spaces fit for the future.
Giulia Paoletti, Eurac research
Photos from Infinite project, Italian demo. Installation of prefabbricated modules by FANTI. Credit: Eurac Research | Ludovica Galeazzi.
