Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the multiple-case study provides multiple source of evidence from key informants,
we can confirm according to Yin that his provides construct validity, while internal
validity is secured by data coherence. Analytical generalisation is used to draw the
key conclusions.
It must be noted that the choice of cases does not exclude the existence of
several other buildings and projects, which themselves may have the same rele-
vance to this research.
3.4 Data Sources
In our process, the publicly available material was reviewed first; this included the
already available and most comprehensive information about Schwanenstadt and
the data published in the Passivhaus-Datenbank for the other schools was taken
into account. The data collection protocol was designed on the basis of a general
understanding of passive house concepts, of the Passivhaus standard more spe-
cifically, and of the challenges of building upgrades towards a high level of energy
efficiency (Baker
2009
).
This protocol was developed to gather and structure the core information of the
research and to provide an effective tool for storing and comparing the data. It was
not restrictive, and any suitable information found to be relevant was added as
comments. This data is stored in a spreadsheet.
Data collection began with an analysis of the previously published material
found in the reports about Schwanenstadt (Lang et al.
2006
; Plöderl et al.
2008
)
and the Passivhaus-Datenbank. A study trip was organised to Austria in the
autumn of 2010, including the visits of the four retrofitted schools of this study that
allowed outside inspections, indoor exploration and technical room visits. The
guides were key personnel involved in the projects as architects and engineers. In
addition, some users answered questions during the visits. Subsequently, some
additional documentation such as the PHPP spreadsheets was sent in by the key
personnel.
3.5 Buildings Elements and Features
An analysis of the renovation requires understanding and organising the knowl-
edge about the buildings and then identifying the relevant items for this study. For
a Passivhaus renovation, the following list was compiled (the list is not exhaustive
and is meant as a tool for this specific case research) (Fig.
1
).
