Strategy of integrated refurbishment of post-war housing stock in Serbia using exoskeletons

The functional and architectural obsolescence of the post-war multi-family housing stock, and high energy consumption of the buildings, are characteristics that require complex and integrated renovation. The research problem is the high energy consumption for heating the existing multi-family residential buildings built in the period 1946-1970. Those buildings are one quarter of the total multifamily housing stock of Serbia. The approach of renovating existing buildings by adding exoskeletons has its functional advantages that set it apart as one of the more significant approaches to complex building renovation. The subject of the research includes the analysis of the application of the exoskeleton addition strategy to existing multi-family buildings in order to achieve high energy efficiency of buildings and increase the space of residential units, and improve vertical communications of buildings. The aim of the research is to examine the advantages of the approach to integrated improvement of existing building by applying the strategy of exoskeleton addition, which includes energy, spatial and functional improvement of the existing building. The paper will define the methodological procedure of exoskeleton application from the initial idea, identification of the research problem, strategy of its application, to the results that can be achieved by such a procedure.