SBE21 Heritage

Renovating historic buildings for a sustainable future

SBE21 Heritage will take place in Bolzano, Italy, from 14th to 16th April 2021. Researchers and practitioners can send their contributions until August

From small medieval towns in Italy to the elegant nineteenth-century boulevards in Paris; from the zen Buddhist temples in Kyoto to the colourful cathedrals of Mexico’s colonial cities: buildings reflect our culture and need to be preserved to tell our grandchildren the same story they told our fathers.

In Europe, historic buildings account for a quarter of the existing building stock. Renovating this kind of constructions - be they farmhouses in remote mountain villages or gems of post-war modernism in metropolitan areas - presents many opportunities for reducing carbon emissions and for improving the comfort of the people living and working inside. However, this can be particularly challenging. Each building is unique and needs specific measures to enhance energy efficiency while preserving historic and aesthetic traits. In this sector, the “one-fits-all” approach hardly applies.

From the 14th to the 16th April 2021, the SBE21 Heritage Conference will bring to Bolzano (Italy) experts working in the fields of energy efficiency and historic building conservation. The conference aims at fostering multidisciplinary dialogues and finding new affordable and efficient retrofit approaches to save our common heritage and guarantee a sustainable future. Scholars and practitioners worldwide are invited to send their contributions. Deadline for submission of abstracts is 31st August 2020. For further information please visit sbe21heritage.eurac.edu or send an email to [email protected].

The SBE21 Heritage Conference is organised by the Institute for Renewable Energy of Eurac Research with the support of three projects focusing on different aspects of sustainability in the built heritage and involving 30 organisations in 14 countries: IEA-SHC Task 59, Interreg Alpine Space ATLAS and HyLAB. These projects will conclude shortly before the conference and will present their findings and achievements as a preview at SBE21 Heritage.