Historic buildings represent a considerable share of the European building stock (around 25%). They contribute to the identity and uniqueness of many cities and will only survive if they are maintained as a living space. To preserve a living built heritage, it is necessary to find energy renovation approaches and solutions compatible with conservation rules. This means that the historical and aesthetic value of these properties must be preserved while increasing the comfort of these living spaces and minimizing their energy consumption and their environmental impact.
The project aims to establish new knowledge for the development of sustainable and efficient solutions for historic buildings in order to bring cultural heritage to life and make it open, accessible, inclusive, resilient and low-emission. It is part of the pursuit of various projects involving members of the CALECHE network concerning, for example, biosourced renovation or "custom" PV integration. The studied solutions will cover all stages of operation (prevention, monitoring, maintenance) and renovation (setting up the operation, design, works).
CALECHE aims to develop a decision support system (DSS) linked to specific protocols like on-site initial evaluations for the renovation of historic buildings. This DSS will implement a people-centered approach on the whole cycle of the renovation process to take into account the multiple interacting benefits and cascading impacts, in compliance with national and international regulation. In addition, CALECHE will improve the performance of 3 of the most promising technologies and techniques for the energy renovation of historic buildings, namely:
1) Interior bio-insulation with high hygrometric performance, a fundamental need for historic buildings to increase their usability, moreover by offering a solution that emphasizes circularity and low embodied carbon;
2) A methodology that promotes the conservation and repair of windows, another sensitive point for conserving the heritage value while increasing the energy performance and which requires very different techniques than for new buildings
3) BIPV as a leading example of the link that can be made between technical innovation and renovation which will increase public acceptance of the introduction of innovation in heritage buildings.
All of CALECHE's work is connected and applies the multi-benefit approach developed, is demonstrated across 4 use cases and is accessible on a website we call the Historic Renovation HUB.
