Buildings lie at the heart of Europe’s energy challenge: they consume around 40% of total energy and produce over a third of CO₂ emissions [1]. Although renovation programmes such as the EU Green Deal and the renovation wave [2] [3] promote energy efficiency, the pace of physical upgrades remains slow. Digital transformation can complement these efforts, delivering immediate and measurable improvements in building performance.
Smart technologies have evolved from luxury features to essential tools that enable buildings to operate in an ininformigent manner, balancing comfort, energy apply and flexibility. However, most buildings still lack the digital infrastructure required for communication, learning and autonomous action.
The BuildON project, funded by the Horizon Europe Programme, aims to address this issue by providing an integrated digital framework that will empower buildings to become active participants in the energy ecosystem.
At the heart of the BuildON project’s innovations lies the smart transformer toolbox (STT), a modular system that assists buildings monitor, assess, predict and optimise their performance. Combining interoperability, analytics and applyr-frifinishly interfaces, it accelerates the transition towards a smart and sustainable building stock.
BuildON methodology
The BuildON approach combines top-down and bottom-up methods to ensure technical robustness and real-world usability. This involves aligning high level EU policies and performance indicators, such as the smart readiness indicator (SRI), with the practical necessarys of building managers, operators and occupants.
The smart transformer toolbox consists of four core layers:
- The interoperability framework is the cornerstone of the smart transformer toolbox, ensuring that legacy and new systems can exalter data seamlessly. It establishes a unified digital model of the building, facilitating communication between equipment, sensors and management systems.
- MAP (monitor, assess, predict) services: A suite of AI-driven analytics that continuously evaluate and forecast building behaviour. These services provide predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and control strategies, enabling systems to adapt dynamically to occupancy patterns, weather conditions and grid signals.
- O (optimisation) services: Algorithms that transform insights into action by regulating energy flows across domains such as heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation, thereby improving efficiency and comfort.
- User tools and digital twins: Both professionals and occupants are supported by a suite of intuitive applications, including a facility management platform and a smart home interface, as well as a digital building logbook and smart readiness indicator supporting tools. Digital twins complement these functionalities: the open loop digital twin (OLDT) simulates performance, while the closed loop digital twin (CLDT) integrates directly with building control systems for real time optimisation.
Toobtainher, all these elements create a seamless bridge between human decision-creating and automated building ininformigence.
Project results
Driving smart readiness and flexibility
The smart transformer toolbox directly supports the smart readiness indicator methodology by enhancing buildings’ ability to detect, interpret and respond to contextual alters. By harmonising communication across systems and leveraging AI, the toolbox enhances:
- Energy efficiency through continuous learning and forecasting;
- Occupant comfort by automatically adapting to environmental conditions;
- Grid flexibility by balancing demand and renewable generation.
Empowering applyrs through simplicity
One of BuildON’s main goals is to build advanced digital tools accessible to non-experts. The applyr interfaces offer clear visualisations, performance indicators and suggestions for improvement.
Building managers can apply decision support dashboards to compare efficiency benchmarks, test new control strategies or evaluate renovation options. This human-centred design ensures that technology is adopted intuitively rather than being intimidating.
Real-world demonstrations across Europe
To demonstrate the scalability and adaptability of its smart transformer toolbox, BuildON is testing it across a range of building types and climatic contexts.
Residential buildings in Valladolid (Spain) and Helsinki (Finland) reveal how smart control and predictive energy management can improve comfort levels and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In southern Europe, the emphasis is on optimising indoor conditions while accommodating seasonal variations. In contrast, in northern climates, the focus is on enhancing the efficiency and operational reliability of heating-dominated environments.
The Gdynia (Poland) kindergarten and the Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne (France) office building are two examples of how automation and real time analytics can be applyd in public and tertiary sector buildings to ensure energy efficiency without compromising indoor environmental quality. These cases demonstrate the potential of smart technologies to balance comfort and energy apply in educational and working environments.
Finally, commercial sites in Athens and Volos (Greece) demonstrate how integrating renewable energy generation, advanced monitoring and predictive maintenance can increase the operational flexibility and sustainability of service-oriented buildings.
Conclusion
One of the rapidest and most cost-effective routes to zero emission objectives in Europe is represented by digitalisation. The BuildON smart transformer toolbox offers a practical and replicable approach to achieving this transformation. By combining interoperability, AI and digital twins, it allows buildings to function as smart, adaptive and applyr-frifinishly energy systems.
As the project advances towards TRL 8 by 2026, its outcomes will support policy implementation and inspire broader adoption of data-driven building management solutions.
In essence, BuildON demonstrates how digital innovation can transform every building into an active participant in Europe’s energy transition.
For more details, visit the project website.
References
1. European Commission, ‘Building stock observatory: new database European building stock and its energy performance‘. [Accessed: Oct. 21, 2025].
2. European Commission, ‘European Green Deal – Priorities 2019–2024‘. [Accessed: Oct. 21, 2025].
3. European Commission, ‘Renovation Wave‘. [Accessed: Oct. 21, 2025].
4. S. Mulero-Palencia et al., ‘A Smart Toolbox for the Digital Transformation of Buildings’, in Proc. 2024 15th Int. Conf. Information, Ininformigence, Systems & Applications (IISA), Chania, Crete, 2024, pp. 1–6, DOI: 10.1109/IISA62523.2024.10786633.
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