VSD-VvE: Value-Sensitive Design for Just and Sustainable VvE Renovations

Many VvE buildings require sustainable renovations, yet despite the obvious financial and energy-performance benefits, they are often not implemented. The current practice of sustainable housing renovation is technology- and expert-driven. The start of the renovation process often focuses on products and technology, such as ‘we want solar panels’, or ‘your building will be connected to district-heat-distribution’. Especially in VvE group decision-making processes, such a technology- and expert-driven approach to sustainable renovations is problematic for several reasons:

• Many values that are influenced by technological measures are overlooked, including user experience, architectural and social values, and the degree of autonomy;
• As a result, sustainable measures are not fully understood or supported by residents;
• Consequently, sustainable renovation processes are not carried out, stalling the climate transition; and
• This can contribute to energy injustice among residents, especially those living in vulnerable or complex apartment buildings.

Identifying values

Value-sensitive design (VSD) is a proven approach for including ethical considerations into technology design, explicitly calling for stakeholder engagement to identify stakeholder values and recognize value trade-offs. The key to this approach is identifying values beyond quantifiable ones, including soft values such as aesthetics and sociality, as well as aspects such as trust, legitimacy, and people’s sense of agency, especially in contexts of scepticism towards climate policies and transition narratives. VSD processes have not yet been applied to the practice of sustainable housing renovation.

This project does just that: it investigates how a collaborative, value-sensitive design approach involving local governments and VVE organisations can support transformative, just, and streamlined decision-making processes for sustainable housing renovations in VvEs. This implies a reversal of current collective decision-making processes, starting from shared values rather than technical measures.

Building on previous research

This project builds on a previous project of the consortium, within the programme of the Delft Design for Values Institute. In this ‘Apples and Oysters’ project, we explored how a VSD approach can be used to inform sustainable renovation decision-making in VvEs. We developed and tested a theoretical framework based on desk research, focus groups with homeowners, and interviews with VvE advisors, concluding that a VSD approach can help to put VvE actors in a ‘frame of mind’ that enables more transformative and just decision-making processes concerning collective renovations.

Co-designing with science, policy, and practice

To further develop the VSD approach for identifying and explicating homeowners’ values during VvE housing renovations, we work in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary team with key actors involved in collective sustainable VvE renovations, including partners from science, policy and practice. Bridging science to local practice, we can identify specific values and procedural aspects in VvEs and recognize how renovation measures align with them, integrating generic theory and methods with specific situations.

Prototyping and validation

The goal is to prototype a scalable method (tool) for eliciting a diverse range of homeowners’ values, enabling a more comprehensive, just and transparent decision-making process that better reflects the actual priorities and concerns of stakeholders involved in sustainable housing renovations. This method is further developed and validated with several partners from practice. At least two medium-sized VvEs are involved in testing, iterative improvement, and validation of the VSD approach and tool. The tool’s form and specifics (e.g. digital application, physical format, or hybrid) are included in the testing.

The local government of Amsterdam, the departments of sustainable housing and homeowners’ approaches, are involved in the consultation and validation of the potential application within the ‘VvE Aanpak’ of the city of Amsterdam (a step-by-step plan offered by the city to support VvEs in sustainable renovation). This reciprocal process allows learning from current practices, concerns, and opportunities for improvement, while simultaneously co-designing and enriching the VSD method through practical insights. During the process, VvE members and managers, policymakers, and researchers also practice making implicit values explicit, thereby developing a ‘frame of mind’ that enables more transformative, collective, and more just decision-making processes.

VSD-VvE project is funded by the Dutch Climate Research Initiative (KIN) through its Transformative Practices and Processes for Climate Transitions programme. The preceding seed project for VSD-VvE, Apples and Oysters, was funded by the Delft Design for Values Institute.