Syn.ikia is an EU-funded project aiming at developing sustainable neighbourhoods with surplus renewable energy across Europe.
It was born as a response to an urgent challenge in the building sector: reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment while at the same time boosting access to affordable housing.
• Syn: means plus
• ikia: means house
Both words together make “plus house,” an expression with a two-fold meaning: plus energy house and neighbourhood (more than one house).
The syn.ikia innovation project brings together 13 partners from six European countries. Together, we aim at increasing the share of plus energy houses in Europe by delivering a blueprint for sustainable plus energy neighbourhoods.
Over the course of the project, syn.ikia will pilot four real-life Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhoods to demonstrate their functionality to the rest of Europe. These will be tailored to four different climatic zones, contexts and markets in Europe.
A Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood relies on the interplay between novel technologies at the neighbourhood scale, energy efficiency & flexibility of buildings, good architectural & spatial qualities, housing affordability and citizen engagement.
Its buildings are Positive Energy Buildings, which produce at least as much renewable energy as they use in a year.
In a Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood, the geographical boundary is expanded beyond the building level to the entire site of the neighbourhood and includes Local Storage and Enery Supply Units. Users, buildings and technical systems are all connected through a digital cloud.
The syn.ikia concept relies on the premise that a cost reduction can only be achieved by an integrated approach, taking into account both the building and the neighbourhood levels, as well as user behaviour and well-being.
To achieve large-scale implementation of Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhoods, syn.ikia operates at 3 levels:
The Building Level,
the Neighbourhood Level,
and the European Level.
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