Davor Stjelja wrote his master’s thesis for the University of Zagreb while at Granlund, and he won the prize of Thesis of the Year. Stjelja completed the work on an EU Erasmus exchange, and he is currently working for Granlund as a consultant in the Innovations and Development department.
The aim of the master’s thesis was to study how building information modelling could be utilised to a greater extent when designing complete renovation projects, particularly with regard to improving energy efficiency.
”I was looking for ways to make it easier and faster to study opportunities for implementing complete overhauls of buildings,” Stjelja says. ”On way is to make use of the data that is most readily available. If a complete renovation appears feasible, data can then be added in order of importance. Further clarity is provided from sources such as sensitivity analyses.”
The thesis also researched several advanced data collection methods.
”I investigated how BIM could be utilised on projects to completely renovate existing buildings,” Stjelja says. ”The results demonstrate that even limited material can be used to create an adequate analysis, which can be used as a basis for collecting the correct types of data for building information modelling and energy simulation of the renovation site.”
The methods identified in Stjelja’s thesis were tested on the complete renovation project for Alppila Upper Secondary School, and the results have also been utilised on the NewTREND EU project.
”My experiences of the Erasmus programme were amazing!” Stjelja enthuses. ”It enabled me to expand my horizons and gain work experience abroad. After I completed my thesis, I got a job at Granlund, which is one of the most advanced companies in the field.”
Stjelja’s thesis also made an impression on his instructors.
”Building information modelling is already widely used in new construction, but it is still relatively rare on complete renovation projects. That is why Stjelja’s thesis topic was new, interesting and relevant,” says Tuomas Laine, Director of Granlund Oy’s Innovation and Development department. ”The results provided further insight into how modelling and analysis methods could be utilised when designing complete renovations in existing buildings. We will be able to utilise the research results as part of Granlund’s consulting services, in addition to the NewTREND project.”
”Stjelja has made considerable progress towards a better understanding of building energy simulations for existing buildings and retrofits. It is highly valuable that several conventional methods as well as emerging technologies for data collection have been analysed in this thesis. One of the most valuable contributions of this thesis is the use of a real case building, which explicitly and clearly demonstrates the benefits of building energy modelling and the proposed methods,” says Dr Tea Žakula from the University of Zagreb.
Davor Stjelja: Advanced energy analysis method for optimal building retrofit design – Youtube
