Sustainable renovation of housing in the urban environment

The global climate change and the growing ecological crisis forces us to address both the questions of ecology and sustainability that step over from the exotic world of eco-villages into the everyday practice of urban design and renovation. To fulfil this aim it has become necessary to define the criteria of sustainability more precisely. After the experiences of two case studies and research in smaller regions in the countryside our working team chose two urban areas in Budapest to examine the opportunities and barriers to sustainability. The characteristic building types of the chosen areas were either typical houses for rent, built 100-150 years ago and giving the well-known architectural character of old Budapest, or the prefabricated housing estates that were built during the communist era by the ``panel-factories´´ and imported from the Soviet Union. This kind of housing is inhabited by 20% of Hungarian citizens. The energetic reconstruction of these buildings is of the highest importance