Serial refurbishment
Energy-efficient modernisation of existing buildings using industrially prefabricated timber facade modules
Rethinking refurbishment: industrial instead of individual
The building sector must become climate-neutral by 2045 – and the greatest potential lies in the existing building stock. Delivering this transformation presents the construction industry with major challenges. The answer is serial refurbishment.
Serial refurbishment transforms energy modernisation through digitalisation, prefabrication and standardised processes. It is particularly suited to building typologies with a high degree of repetition, such as apartment blocks, multi-storey residential buildings and entire housing estates. Here, real economies of scale can be realised across planning, manufacturing and installation.
Serial refurbishment means moving away from one-off projects towards a scalable system.
The serial refurbishment process
Through digital planning, industrial module production and standardised workflows, existing buildings can be upgraded to climate-neutral standards quickly, efficiently and economically – even in times of skilled labour shortages.
Digital building survey
The building is captured with millimetre precision using 3D laser scanning. This creates a digital twin that forms the basis for planning and manufacturing the modules.
Industrial prefabrication
The facade elements are produced in the factory using timber panel construction, including insulation, windows and façade cladding – manufactured independently of weather conditions and produced under strict quality control.
Standardised processes
The entire value chain, from planning to production and installation, is digitised and standardised. This minimises errors, accelerates processes and increases cost certainty.
Rapid on-site installation
The full-storey modules are transported to site just in time and installed in front of the existing building envelope using a crane. Intervention in the existing structure remains minimal, and the load-bearing structure is preserved. On-site construction time is drastically reduced, making refurbishment possible while the building remains occupied.
Timber facade modules
The elements, manufactured using timber panel construction, combine insulation, windows and facade cladding in a single system. They are prefabricated in the factory to full-storey height and installed as a new building envelope in front of the existing structure – precise, efficient and fully demountable.
Using timber as the structural material keeps the elements lightweight while delivering an excellent carbon footprint.
Delivered in Heidenheim: Serial refurbishment with prefabricated timber facade modules
Why serial facade refurbishment?
Our approach deliberately focuses on the building envelope. This is where the greatest energy performance improvements can be achieved while offering the highest potential for scalability. Rather than fragmented individual upgrades, we deliver an industrially developed facade system designed to transform existing housing stock.
Key benefits:
- High planning and cost certainty
- Shorter project timelines
- High execution quality through industrial manufacturing
- Compliance with demanding energy-efficiency standards
- Sustainable CO2 reduction via the building envelope
- Reduced noise and dust during construction
The pure installation time using conventional insulation would take around ten times longer than the installation carried out by NOKERA using serial refurbishment.
Interested in serial refurbishment for your residential portfolio?
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Project requestThe most common questions about serial refurbishment
As a pioneer in serial timber construction, NOKERA also provides solutions for serial refurbishment, upgrading the thermal building envelope in order to modernise existing buildings quickly, to a high standard and in a climate-neutral way.
Buildings with a simple form and a regular structure are particularly well suited to serial refurbishment using prefabricated façade elements. Thanks to industrial prefabrication, cost efficiency is highest for building types with a high degree of repetition. Row buildings from the 1950s to the 1970s—such as multi-family housing or multi-storey residential buildings—as well as schools, nurseries and administrative buildings are especially suitable.
As a general contractor, NOKERA manages every phase of the project – from analysis and planning to production and installation – all from a single source. At the Green Factory, the world’s largest facility for serial timber construction, NOKERA has sufficient production capacity for the industrial manufacture of facade elements, enabling the energy-efficient modernisation of existing buildings on a large scale.
The process of a facade refurbishment consists of:
- Digital survey using 3D laser scanning
- Industrial prefabrication of the facade elements
- Just-in-time delivery of the elements
- Installation on the existing building within a very short on-site construction period
Serial refurbishment enables building envelopes to be upgraded economically and precisely to improve energy performance. Production using sustainable timber panel construction ensures durability and full demountability.
Industrial prefabrication in the factory significantly shortens construction times while enhancing quality. The reduced on-site assembly period greatly minimises noise and disruption for tenants during refurbishment.
For tenants, this means noticeably lower energy consumption, reduced CO₂ emissions, and reliably predictable heating costs. Insulation that protects against heat in the summer and retains warmth in the winter enhances living comfort all year round.
New builds. New growth.
