The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to evaluate different alternatives of renewal regarding an already existing building. The case study building is located in the Ulleråker area in Uppsala, Sweden and is an old mental hospital building from the 1950’s which Uppsala Municipality wishes to restore as part of a bigger investment in the neighborhood. The different alternatives that will be investigated are refurbishment, with different insulation thickness, and a complete demolition and reconstruction of a new building with either wood or concrete. Carbon dioxide emissions connected to buildings will be calculated and analyzed as two elements, one being embodied carbon dioxide, and one being energy usage. Other aspects of interest, the economy and cultural values of the area, will be discussed. To estimate the amount of CO2 emissions, several life cycle assessments will be executed through the software One Click LCA (2015). Calculations will be done by hand in order to estimate the energy usage. Information and data are partly obtained from Uppsala Municipality, partly from literature and available resources. The results show that each option has a different advantage, the refurbishment resulting in considerably lower embodied carbon (114 kg CO2e/m2) but higher energy usage (95 kWh/m2 per year) as compared to the new concrete construction with larger amount of embodied carbon (279 kg CO2e/m2) but lower energy usage (44 kWh/m2 per year). This leads to a conclusion showing that a deep refurbishment is the best option regarding both embodied carbon and energy usage.

Denna studie tar upp om det är mer hållbart att renovera en befintlig byggnad eller riva den nuvarande och bygga en ny ur ett klimat perspektiv. Målet är, med hjälp av livscykelanalys, undersöka ämnet. Studien har avgränsats till att fokusera på ekologisk hållbarhet och redovisar endast klimatpåverkan och energibehov. Metoden som har använts är en litteraturstudie där tidigare projekt som stått inför frågan om ätt riva eller renovera?”har beaktats. Dessutom undersöks forskningsartiklar som studerar området. Studien baseras på två svenska skrifter och tre internationella som sedan diskuteras och analyseras. Samtliga artiklar styrker argumentet att renovering är det optimala valet även då nybyggnation kan bidra till energieffektivitet vid driftstadiet. Renovering uppnår i stort sett samma resultat när det gäller energiförbrukning samtidigt som detta alternativ har en lägre klimatpåverkan. / This study will address the sustainability of renovating an existing building compared to demolishing the current one and building a new one. The scope of the study has been limited to ecological sustainability, specifically two parameters; climate impact and energy consumption. The methodology used for this project is a literature study in which previous project essays and research articles investigating the issue of to demolish or renovate?­ is taken into consideration. Where the subject was investigated using a life cycle assessment. This study is based on two Swedish publications and three international ones, which are discussed and analyzed. All included articles support the argument that renovation is the preferred choice, although new construction can contribute to energy efficiency at the operational stage. Compared to demolishing and rebuilding, renovation results in similar energy consumption, while achieving a more modest climate impact.

Freeways have had a strong influence not only on the urban transportation but also on downtown areas both physically and socially. Certainly, they have extended the commuting limits of the city and made lower land costs more accessible. However, many of the mid-century freeways, once championed by planners as tools for urban renewal, have created swaths of blight through city neighborhoods. Their negative impacts on the larger urban framework requires new ideas for healthier alternatives to aid in preserving and building sustainable cities. Removal of any downtown highway requires careful thought— even more consideration than when it was built. Quick solutions are what resulted in the problems that downtown highways of the Interstate-Era have today. If it is the simple interactions between people and place are that make up the positive aspects an urban environment, then what are the possibilities and strategies for removing urban highway, which are one of the primary impediments separating people in place in contemporary cities? This question is the focus of this thesis. At its core, the removal of freeways represents a trade-off between mobility objectives and economic development objectives. Evidence from other cities’ decisions to redesign or remove their downtown highways suggests multiple benefits. Making design changes, such as to replace a downtown highway with a well-designed surface boulevard, can stimulate economic activities without necessarily causing traffic chaos. Solutions come in different shapes and sizes. The selected case studies in this thesis reflect a diversity of approaches – suggesting no single strategy exists for addressing downtown highway issues. This reflects the fact that multiple alternatives must be considered in every situation because each approach varies in costs and opportunities. A typology of highway alternations derived from the case studies includes seven different techniques: burying, demolishing, taming, capping or bridging, elevating, retaining, and relocating. The final chapter applies the conclusions from the case studies to the Downtown Connector– Interstate 75/85– in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Urban design and transportation planning has an emerging new set of values. Transportation planning is seeking to promote alternate modes of transportation to the private vehicle, like transit, by foot, or by bicycle. We now understand that connectivity is not served only by highways but also by urban street networks that invite modes other than just automobiles. An important role for urban design will be to shape the way these interactions are made to benefit the citizens, its urban spaces, and the economy.