Developing a Smart Retrofitting Decision-Making Model for Office Buildings: A Case Study

In an era where the imperative for global sustainable development has never been more pronounced, this paper unveils the process in developing a novel, Smart Retrofitting (SR) decision-making model for buildings. With various intelligent automation routes/options offered by smart retrofits, streamlining the decision-making process in choosing the optimal retrofit options not only enhances efficiency but also empowers building stakeholders to play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable practices, fostering resource efficiency, and contributing to the global commitment to sustainable development goals. Employing a mixed-method approach, the early stages of this research, which involved an extensive literature review, a focus group study and a questionnaire survey, identified criteria for making SR decisions. The criteria were prioritized using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) weights derived from expert interviews. The developed model, as reported in this paper, was empirically tested on an office building in Hong Kong, showcasing its practical application. Utilizing Entropy-based weights and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method, the model enabled efficient selection of an optimal smart retrofit option, with the essential environmental, economic, technical, user-comfort and legal issues duly considered. The results of this research contribute to the discourse on sustainable urban development by offering not only a tangible framework for decision-making but also actionable guidance that can streamline smart decision-making in future SR initiatives in densely populated cities similar to Hong Kong.