About
Multi-hazard low-carbon resilient technologies and multi-scale digital services for a future-proof, sustainable & user-centred built environment.
MULTICARE background
The built environment is ill-prepared for more frequent and increasingly intense climate-related extreme events. The current building stock is particularly vulnerable because it has limited or no capacity to adapt and recover from extreme events thereby leading to building failures that cause severe socio-economic losses and adversely affecting the health and wellbeing of people. Recent scientific and technological advances in the construction industry provide timely solutions for improving the resilience for specific single hazards (e.g. flood hazard or seismic hazard), but they are often not cost effective, rarely eco-friendly and nearly never address the multiple hazards present in many locations. This is hardly surprising because there is neither a clearly defined framework for quantifying the whole-life socio-economic-environmental impacts of extreme natural events nor tools for assessing the holistic climate resilience of buildings. Consequently, it is currently very challenging to develop/select optimal solutions for real-world multi-hazard scenarios.
Plug & Play Marvels
MULTICARE will address this challenge directly by developing new multi-criteria decision-support frameworks and providing plug & play technological and digital solutions for improving the resilience of the built environment in a cost-effective, reliable and sustainable manner. The technological solutions consist of multi-functional low-carbon resilient technologies embedded in modular and prefabricated construction for the next generation of high performance and smart buildings, characterized by enhanced safety, energy efficiency, environmental-sustainability, improved quality of life, circularity, and scalability for a broad range of natural events and end-user.
Mastering Multi-Hazards
The plug & play technologies will be applied to either new multi-story buildings or existing structures by means of low-invasive external interventions. The digital solutions consist of a suite of multi-disciplinary digital services and tools for performing multi-hazard resilience assessment, design, operation and management across multiple scales (material, component, building, neighbourhood/city). The new digital tools will enable stakeholders to make informed decisions in the selection of materials/solutions, including for heritage buildings, and support resilient supply chains.
Thinking Big, Thinking Small
The effectiveness of the MULTICARE solutions will be demonstrated through large-scale pilots (3 buildings, 4 neighbourhoods/district) in three different European countries carefully selected for their diverse local environmental, social and economic conditions (Italy, Netherlands, Romania). Banks and institutional investors will be engaged to better understand the financial risk reduction value of resilience and update existing and future “green finance” mechanisms that will help to leverage the project results. A user-centred, inclusive and participatory approach will be consistently implemented throughout the project to engage citizens and extend the durability of MULTICARE impact.
A Team behind the project
To achieve these ambitious goals, MULTICARE brings together a unique interdisciplinary Consortium of 21 partners from 6 different EU countries with strong R&D and practical expertise, who are either established leaders in their sector or agile SMEs in emerging fields. Altogether the Consortium members span across the whole technical and value chain required for developing and implementing solutions in terms of design, digitization, manufacturing, construction and monitoring of resilient and sustainable buildings.
Experts in building resilience
The Consortium also includes partners with experience in social sciences, user engagement, and training to ensure the success and widespread application of new technologies in local communities. The Consortium will also support clustering activities with other relevant research projects to share knowledge and raise public awareness of building resilience. An international outreach and cooperation strategy will also be implemented to tackle the project challenges.
Join the Movement
MULTICARE isn’t just a project; it’s a movement toward a future where our buildings stand resilient against any challenge. It’s an invitation to be part of a transformative journey, to witness the birth of buildings that aren’t just structures but resilient ecosystems ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
MULTICARE aims at boosting the creation of a resilient Europe by providing adaptation technological solutions (with a focus on residential buildings and social housing), and integrated approaches and tools necessary for assessing, improving and responding to future climate threats. In particular, MULTICARE will provide multi-layer modules, consisting of low-carbon modular components with standardized plug & play connections, to upgrade the resilience of buildings against multiple hazards, simultaneously contributing to sustainable development and improved quality of life.
The proposed solutions allow for efficient (de)-construction, significant cost and time savings and resilient supply chains adapted to local scenarios. The technologies are scalable and customized to either new or existing buildings across Europe. Novel decision-support frameworks and a suite of digital services will also be developed to facilitate the whole-life cycle multi-hazard resilience assessment, design and management across multiple scales (material-to-urban). A resilient & sustainable based approach will be adopted to support design decisions and to improve real-time control, simulation and operation of buildings and urban areas.