Envelope index evaluation model of existing buildings

An evaluation methodology to estimate the envelope's degradation level (DL) of social housing buildings was developed. The DL of each of the principal faults was determined as well as the building envelope's evaluation index (EI). Degradation assessment results were obtained through visual survey and were aggregated by a method developed in the research. With the aim of discovering the visual phenomena's underlying mechanism, models have been constructed to analyse the behaviour of each dependent variable (faults), according to the independent ones: building age, covering type, last repair action and proximity to sea, trees, main roads, industrial zones and collective buildings. After obtaining the building's EI, models were developed to estimate the influence of the predictor variables in this index. The aim of this paper is to present the models for obtaining the envelope EI of a set of social residence buildings in Aveiro District, Portugal. This was achieved in the scope of a research project on prioritising refurbishment interventions in the Portuguese social housing stock Rodrigues, M.F.S., 2008. Social Housing Conservation State. Evaluation index and methodology. PhD Thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro (in Portuguese)].