Environmental values are becoming increasingly important in restoration of historical buildings, while energy interventions can seriously damage historical qualities. Cultural-historical values and environmental values are often considered difficult to commensurate, with energy engineers and heritage …

Dealing with and maintaining high-quality standards in the design and construction phases is challenging, especially for on-site construction. Issues like improper implementation of building components and poor communication can widen the gap between design specifications and actual conditions. To prevent …

Ending subsidies for fossil fuel heating systems from 2025, and phasing out gas boilers and other fossil fuel heaters by 2040. These are just two of the outcomes of a political agreement between the EU Council and the European Parliament, which was reached on December 7, 2023. Which measures were agreed …

The built environment requires energy-flexible buildings to reduce energy peak loads and to maximize the use of (decentralized) renewable energy sources. The challenge is to arrive at smart control strategies that respond to the increasing variations in both the energy demand as well as the variable …

Cultural heritage buildings and sites are threatened by the effects of climate change, especially in coastal zones. Risks not only include floods and submersion, but also less visible risks such as effects of moisture levels or, alternatively, drought. At the same time, it is important to involve people …

The company, Harbich Ltd., is engaged in the construction of residential buildings. Traditional building materials such as ceramic bricks, concrete and reinforcement are used for construction. Given the fact that the production of these materials requires a huge amount of resources makes them unsustainable …

On Saturday the 2nd of July, students and researchers of the NoorderRuimte Research Center organized a participatory event, in collaboration with the local citizen initiative Duurzaam Oosterpark. They exchanged information with local citizens about the main housing types in the district and how they …

This report is the result of my internship at the research group Energy in Transition at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The report shows the process and results from the development of a method to produce design and control advice to increase building energy flexibility based on open source …

Monitoring the energy performance of very low and zero energy buildings is fundamental to evaluate the efforts made to transition into an energy neutral built environment. Post occupancy monitoring has been embedded into current practice, supported by the availability of smart meters and affordable sensor …

One of the most complex and urgent challenges in the energy transition is the large-scale refurbishment of the existing housing stock in the built environment. In order to comply with the goals of the Paris convention, the aim is to live “energy-neutral,” that is, a dwelling should produce as much sustainable …