Futurhist

In January 2024, we launched a new project under the Horizon Europe Programme Climate, Energy, and Mobility. FuturHist aims to develop replicable retrofit solutions for historic buildings of the future. The project’s ambition is to shift the focus from individual buildings to building typologies. It will help create a more sustainable and energy-efficient built environment while preserving historic structures.

What challenges does the FuturHist project address?

Future-proofing the built heritage faces the paradox of needing standardised approaches but having a heterogeneous stock with particular needs. FuturHist will rely on identifying and characterising local uniform building typologies as the lowest common denominator to develop tailored interventions that can be replicated in all buildings of that category with minor modifications. Such an approach will then serve as a basis for the adaptation to other typologies in the same context (climate, regulations, etc.) or even similar typologies (in terms of materials, configuration, etc.) in different contexts.

Although considerable progress has been made in recent years regarding materials and solutions compatible with conserving historic buildings, several challenges remain open. FuturHist will develop passive and active solutions focusing on efficient use of energy and resources, improved well-being, enhanced durability, revalorisation of existing materials and techniques, integration of renewable energy systems, and smart solutions for decarbonising heating, cooling, and ventilation. The researched solutions include clay-biochar insulation, self-healing lime plaster, and hybrid original-vacuum glazing.

The aims of the project

FuturHist will help develop:

Sustainable internal insulation systems that will rely on natural materials with low embodied energy and carbon footprint and easy application processes that reduce construction waste to offer improved comfort thanks to their high moisture buffering potential,
External insulation renders that will benefit from the self-healing properties of traditional materials like lime and the low thermal conductivity of biochar to improve the cost-effectiveness of interventions and reduce the need for maintenance,
Solutions to maintain, repair, and retrofit the existing windows to improve energy performance and meet the demands of today’s living comfort while reducing resources and waste and reviving and valorising traditional crafts in the window joinery sector.

The pressing need to adapt historic buildings to the clean energy transition requires looking beyond the boundaries of the specific buildings and thinking of the building in its context. The typologies considered in the project will be based on more than just factors such as materials, geometry, or the building’s use. It will also consider the connection to its surroundings, i.e., the curtilage, other buildings, the street, and the neighbourhood. This approach will allow the study and replication of aspects like the integration of RES, decarbonisation of heating and cooling, and improvement of smart readiness.

Demonstration is at the core of the project. While developing innovative solutions (such as clay-biochar insulation and self-healing lime plaster), we aim to validate the results in four case studies in Spain, Poland, Sweden, and the UK. The project team selected them to ensure verification under different climates, construction typologies, and socio-economic environments.

The role of the Sendzimir Foundation in the project

The Sendzimir Foundation is a Work Package 7 Dissemination, Communication, and Competence Building leader. We are responsible for communication activities designed to reach the most significant possible number of recipients: practitioners, decision-makers, representatives of the construction sector, building managers and users, and researchers. We are also responsible for co-creating educational and training materials.

In 2026, we will implement a two-stage educational program: a one-and-a-half-month e-learning course and a seven-day summer school in Krakow.

Our role is also to support the consortium with the expert knowledge we have developed during the project Climate Mitigation in Heritage Buildings in 2020-2022. As part of this project, we published the guidebook Renovation and retrofitting of old buildings in times of climate crisis, which is available in Polish and English.

The FuturHist project team consists of Ewelina Pękała and Tomasz Jeleński.

FuturHist Team

We are 18 organisations from 9 European countries.

Kick-off meeting in Bolzano, 17-18 January 2024, phot. Eliana Begal

FuturHist Coordinator:

Eurac Research, based in Bolzano, Italy, is responsible for project management and leads the working packages of active systems for a clean energy transition and demonstration.

Work Packages Leaders:

Uppsala University, Sweden, leads the work package drawing the baseline.
University of Innsbruck, Austria, leads the work package passive solutions for efficient historic buildings.
Erik Arkitekter, Denmark, leads the work package development of an integrated planning toolkit.
Edinburgh World Heritage, the UK, leads the work package scale-up.
The Sendzimir Foundation, Poland, leads the work package dissemination, communication, and competence building.

Demonstration cases Leaders:

Agencia de la Vivienda y Rehabilitación de Andalucía, Spain, is responsible for the demo case in Córdoba.
The City of Kraków, Poland, is responsible for the demo case in Kraków.
Svenska Kyrkan, Sweden, is responsible for the demo case in Linköping.

Industry and practice:

Universities:

Dissemination and Communication Partners:

ICOMOS International, France
INTBAU, Wielka Brytania

The project will be implemented between January 2024 and December 2027 under the Horizon Europe Programme Climate, Energy, and Mobility.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.