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The Digital Building Logbook (DBL) was first introduced together with the Renovation Wave initiative, promoted by the European Commission and then defined in the proposal for a recast of the energy performance of buildings Directive, in December 2021, as a repository of relevant data on a building that aims to alleviate the current lack of information of the European building stock. Several data sources on buildings already exist at different levels in Europe, and their interlinkage is crucial for a proper data population of the future Building Logbook. However, these data sources are scattered and heterogeneous, thus, they need to be evaluated to determine their suitability for the DBL. This paper analyses the sources that currently exist in Spain and Italy, focusing respectively on Aragon and Lombardy region, and addressing their interoperability possibilities and the indicators collected. The results show that the available data are not fully aligned with the relevant indicators from the existing proposals for a European DBL, and that few data sources are currently suitable for the DBL, since most of them are not interoperable. Considering the features and limitations of the data sources, a dataflow general scheme based on the definition of the DBL is defined for each case study, and guidelines are presented on data collection and interoperability in order to make its implementation feasible at the European scale.

Being able to assess potentials and obstacles regarding different optimization scenarios for an old building is essential. However, the data needed to provide this information should be operational and suitable for the early design and planning phases of rebuilding or renovation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilities of using information from public registers and databases on existing buildings as possible input data to inform designers and other stakeholders about the renovation potential of existing buildings in urban developments. This includes evaluating sustainability indicators for indoor climate, energy savings, flexibility, affordability, materials composition, recycling opportunities, etc. Denmark is a frontrunner in digitalizing building data and making them publicly accessible. The results of a mapping of three public building registers and databases show that they – although they were initially established for purposes of taxation, preservation, and energy savings can be put to new use in a circularity perspective. However, even though Denmark is far in the digitalization of building data, the analysis also shows that there are data gaps, outdated data, and errors in registrations that still need to be addressed. Therefore, this article lists recommendations for developing national or regional digital building data registers to support better decisions about renovation and urban development.

International audience; The current challenge is to reduce the building energy consumption, in hot and humid climates, for which air conditioning is widespread. Up to now, the lack of criteria that identify the available cooling resources and the level of performance of technical solution has represented the major obstacle. To address these issues, the authors propose a new set of indicators to fully inform the decision-making process of the bioclimatic design of fully space-conditioned buildings in a hot and humid climate. This set of indicators provides an overview of the exploitable environmental resource (external air through external convection, natural ventilation and sky radiation cooling) referred as the Environmental Resource Indicators and of the capacity of the building to exploit those resources referred as the Building Performance Indicators. The indicators are implemented for a very basic two-story residential building in the hot, humid climate of Djibouti. The case study shows not only the ability of the indicators to reflect the bioclimatic performances of the buildings but also their ability to give an overview of the building heat exchanges, from which the implication of improper bioclimatic solutions on building cooling consumptions can easily be identified. These indicators are a means to help choose which technical solutions are most suited to the local climate, which is very useful for designers and architects in the early stages of building design.