Beneath the vaults of a Gothic church, within the thick walls of a Cistercian monastery, in the stucco of a Renaissance palace or the rammed earth and timber frames of a traditional house, a single truth emerges: built heritage is an essential part of our history and collective identity. It is a physical legacy made of stone, wood, lime, brick or raw earth, conceived with construction wisdom adapted to its time.
Today, however, many of these buildings are deteriorating, left empty, and, far too often, disappearing without ever having been given a second chance. The lack of contemporary use, societal passivity, the absence of maintenance plans, the associated costs and, above all, something rarely discussed or deliberately overlooked: a technical misunderstanding of how they were built, are accelerating their loss.
Lifecycle of the Monastery of Nuestra Señora del Prado (Valladolid), pilot building of the INHERIT project. Source: own elaboration
How can we preserve what we don´t understand? How can we maintain with sound judgement if we ignore how something was built, why specific materials were used, or what structural logic underlies it? Preventive conservation is not a trend, it is an urgent necesssity if we want to safeguard our cultural heritage with rigour and responsibility.
At CARTIF, we believe it is essential to research and develop technical, innovative, yet realistic and implementable solutions that address this challenge through knowledge and respect for what has already been built. We aim to contribute to asmarter, more useful conservation approach, one that avoids improvisation and standard formulas, and instead promotes a deep understanding of how things were constructed, in order to care for them better. We are convinced that heritage conservation is a collective process: a way of valuing what connects us, engaging citizens, and reinforcing our bond with the built environment.
Projects we have been involved in, such as INHERIT andiPhotoCult, support this vision and underscore the need for a new technological perspective on heritage conservation. We already explored this line of thought in our blog post “A proper approach to inspecting historic buildings”; if you’re interested in digging deeper, we recommend giving it a read.
Why can´t we apply the same criteria userd for contemporary buildings?
Historic buildings do not follow the rules of modern construction. Their materials, lime, brick, stone, wood, earth, are porous, natural, and adapted to local climates and contexts. Their construction systems, load-bearing walls, vaults, timber roof frames, obey a different logic. Assessing them using the same technical criteria as reinforced concrete or steel buildings is not only incorrect, it’s unjust.
We need tools that speak the language of built heritage. A specific approach that values their unique technical nature, because constructive diversity is not a problem, it’s a valuable asset.
A technical proposal for knowledge-based conservation
Today, many diagnostic inspections still rely almost exclusively on the expertise of the technician conducting them. While that professional judgement is valuable, even essential, it becomes insufficient if the data gathered is not structured in a consistent, traceable and useful way for follow-up actions such as maintenance planning, rehabilitation, or risk assessment.
Workflow towards preventive maintenance based on HBIM: from data collection to knowledge. Source: own elaboration
That’s why we believe it is crucial to open the debate and move towards the development of a methodological proposal that addresses the specific needs of this field, through clear technical criteria and a systematic approach that enables us to:
Identify and evaluate historical construction systems according to their own internal logic.
Detect and structure deterioration symptoms by technical domain (foundations, structure, façades, roofs, interior partitions and finishes, metalwork and joinery, accessibility, installations and smart systems).
Assess associated risks, whether physical, functional or environmental.
Generate structured, reusable data that can be connected to digital tools such as H-BIM models or maintenance platforms.
This approach does not aim to simplify through standardisation, but to intelligently unify technical criteria through consensus among professionals, adapting to different contexts and typologies while respecting the architectural and cultural diversity of the built heritage. It remains fully aligned with current regulatory frameworks, such as the UNE 41805 standard for building diagnostics, and takes as a reference the National Preventive Conservation Plan of Spain’s Institute of Cultural Heritage (IPCE).
What are the benefits of a well-designed technical tool?
Adopting a technical methodology adapted to heritage buildings offers tangible benefits for technicians, companies and public administrations alike:
Reduced medium- and long-term costs by avoiding emergency interventions.
Greater transparency and traceability through structured, comparable data across buildings.
Enhanced appreciation of traditional technical knowledge, acknowledging the logic and effectiveness of historic systems and materials, while also addressing professional niches that currently lack recognition.
Real support for decision-making without replacing professional judgement.
Seamless integration with digital models and H-BIM platforms to plan maintenance, evaluate deterioration risks, monitor material ageing or assess energy performance (when appropriate).
These tools are key to achieving a more useful and proactive form of management, enabling better planning, fewer interventions, and more effective conservation, helping us move towards sustainable, resilient, resource-efficient and ultimately cost-effective heritage.
Looking ahead: meaningful digitalisation
The potential of this approach does not end with inspection or diagnostics. It opens the door to digital tools capable of integrating 3D models, geolocated imagery, environmental or structural sensors, and lesion monitoring systems, or even AI-based tools capable of predicting deterioration patterns.
Workflow applied to the former collegiate church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Roa (iPhotoCult project), with data acquisition using a ground-based robotic platforma (UGV). Source: own elaboration
But none of this will be useful without a solid foundation: reliable, technically sound and well-structured data. Because technology alone doesn’t preserve buildings. It’s people, with sound judgement, supported by tools that respect and understand what has been built.
Built heritage is not merely a collection of old stones. It is a living expression of our identity, our way of inhabiting space, our craftsmanship, our decisions and our memory. And today, more than ever, preserving it is a way of taking care of ourselves as a society.
In a world where sustainability is increasingly at the forefront of our concerns, the need for innovative solutions to transform our built environment is more pressing than ever. The current state of the EU building stock presents a significant challenge, acting as one of the largest energy consumers in Europe and responsible for over one third of the EU’s emissions.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the European Commission unveiled a new strategy in October 2020: “A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives.” This strategy represents a crucial step forward, aiming to incentivize investments in renovation and support the implementation of efficient methods and technologies.
Despite these efforts, the reality remains stark – over 75% of the EU building stock is not energy-efficient, and the annual renovation rate languishes at a mere 1%. The strategy emphasizes the need for deep renovations, those achieving over 60% reduction in energy consumption, as a top priority. The overarching goal? To double annual energy renovation rates over the next decade, not only to reduce emissions but also to enhance the quality of life for building occupants and create green jobs in the construction sector.
To achieve the depth and volume of renovation required, a strong and competitive construction sector is essential. Embracing innovation and sustainability is paramount to increasing quality and reducing production and installation costs. The Built4People European Partnership highlights three pillars crucial to this endeavour:
Industrialized Technological Solutions: Embracing advanced technologies to streamline construction processes.
Digitalization of the Construction Industry: Leveraging digital tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) to improve transparency and efficiency.
Integration of Circularity Principles: Incorporating circular economy principles across the entire value chain, from materials sourcing to waste management.
In the midst of this pressing need for renovation innovation, REHOUSEemerges as a beacon of hope. Coordinated by CARTIF and under the Horizon Europe program, REHOUSE is poised to lead the charge in innovation within the construction sector. With a laser focus on deep renovations and circularity principles, REHOUSE aims to develop and demonstrate eight renovation packages incorporating promising technology innovations up to TRL7 (Integrated pilot system demonstrated).
These renovation packages are meticulously designed to overcome the main barriers that impede current EU renovation ratios. Through the integration of active/passive elements, prefabrication, and off-site construction, REHOUSE seeks to deliver affordable and sustainable renovation solutions with the flexibility to address nearly 100% of building renovation challenges at the EU level.
But what truly sets REHOUSE apart is its people-centric approach. By actively engaging residents and building owners throughout the renovation process, the project ensures that solutions are not only sustainable but also affordable, satisfactory, and attractive.
REHOUSE is now at its halfway point, demonstrating remarkable progress and achievements. The project has already established the basis for the social innovation strategy, detailed the specifications of innovative solutions, and produced digital versions of the Renovation Packages. Additionally, an innovative evaluation framework and technical building diagnosis of the demo-sites have been completed. The validation of the Renovation Packages (RPs) is underway to achieve TRL6 (Prototype system verified), accompanied by the development of guidelines for their industrialization. Furthermore, the project is actively defining specifications for the Digital Building Logbook, designing and preparing the groundwork for the later construction of the demo-sites, and outlining the pathway towards market achievement after the project concludes. These efforts mark the beginning of our journey to revolutionize renovation processes, driven by innovation and collaboration.
Join us on this transformative journey as we pave the way for a brighter, greener tomorrow with REHOUSE. Together, we can reshape our built environment, create sustainable spaces, and preserve our planet for generations to come.
This project has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101079951.
Decarbonization is the “trending topic” of terms related to sustainability, energy and the environment. It is the process of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere. Decarbonization means reducing climate change and dependence on fossil fuels, which are precisely those that emit CO2 when burned (clear examples are fuel-oil and coal). Decarbonization implies the use of cleaner energy sources, but also the adoption of technologies and methods to protect the environment and to reduce these emissions (the so-called “carbon footprint”).
However, what does this have to do with Cultural Heritage? Well, you will be surprised for sure, but it turns out that Heritage contribuyes many important things to decarbonization: the preservation of historical buildings, the reuse of spaces, the promotion of sustainable mobility, the promotion of cultural tourism and technological innovation in the assessment and the conservation of historical assets. In other words, it turns out that offers an environmentally friendly approach to urban planning and rural development.
If we go into a little more detail, you will see that Cultural Heritage can play a significant role in decarbonization and the fight against climate change. Here we provide you five ways to do so, but I´m quite sure your are able to think of some more (please tell us):
Technological innovation applied to conservation1 of historic buildings (where CARTIF has a lot to say): here the sensitivity required by historic buildings implies the development of specific techniques and technologies, which have broader applications in reducing carbon emissions in other fields of construction and environmental management. The digitally based technical inspection, the preventive conservation and the intervention involving H-BIM avoid both ruin and/or demolition, as well as new alternative constructions, which significantly reduces the material and energy resources to be used for these purposes. Furthermore, and this is worthy of remark, the old buildings were designed and built up with techniques and materials that are inherently sustainable, taking advantage of aspects that we are “rediscovering” right now such as orientation, natural ventilation and the use of native materials.
Reuse of spaces: Historical sites and buildings can be suitable adapted for new uses and transformed into living or working spaces with a level of comfort appropriate to the 21st century, which in the medium-long term saves resources compared to the construction of new substitute structures. This reuse contributes to greater energy efficiency and the reduction of carbon emissions.
Adaptation and transcription of ancient professional techniques: historic places are examples of how antique societies adapted to environmental challenges (which have always existed) and how lessons learned in the past can be adopted today through proper understanding and technological shift of traditional techniques and uses (both materials and methods).
Promotion of sustainable mobility: The preservation of historic centres in cities increasingly promotes sustainable mobility. In fact, they were desgined to move on foot, on horseback or in wagons and carriages. Therefore, they absolutely favour pedestrian accesibility and the use of public transport instead of private vehicles. This reduces dependence on fossil fuels and decreases greenhouse gas emissions.
Development of sustainable cultural tourism: it is more than proven that sustainable cultural tourism can play an important role in the local economy and even in the region, encouraging more environmentally friendly practices such as waste management, conservation of biodiversity and the promotion of quality agri-food and crafts.
But, does Cultural Heritage really do that much? Obviously yes. Indeed, a lot. In line with the priorities of the European Green Deal and the EU´s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050, the European Cultural Heritage Green Paper emerged in 2021, where indeed it is already considered a driver of decarbonization and mirror upon which citizens see themselves as key actors in the actions needed on this regard.
Historic building and decarbonization is a bionmial over which the Cultural Heritage & Regeneration Committee of the European Construction Technology Platform has been working for years (CARTIF takes part of the Executive Board). Its latest strategic research agenda for the period 2021-2027, promptly refers to this. And it is an issue that has been deepen into recent plenary assemblies. It is no wonder when 24% of the residential buildings in Europe date back to before 1945, nearly half of them have historical value, and of this latter, 73% are located in cities, which is precisely where the alrgest carbon footprint is made.
From now on, will you see Heritage with an additional view further than cultural, religious and tourist ones? Another thing for you to know.
1 In line with UNESCO and ICOMOS usage related to tangible heritage, conservation is considered as the umbrella term to cover a range of preservation, conservation, restoration, (re)use, interpretation and management activities.
This phrase, which is now part of history and sounds familiar to most of us, even if we belong to a different generation, was used by the astronauts on board the Apollo 13 spacecraft after an oxygen tank on board explosion. This happened two days after the start of their spatial mission to land on the Moon, which had been launched on April 11, 1970. It was watched by millions of people around the world for days to find out what the destiny of the three astronauts on boards the spacecraft would be. Meanwhile, NASA worked against the clock to generate a digital replica using computer-controlled simulators that would replicate the conditions that were occurring in space. This model, which was true to reality, allowed them to predict how the spacecraft would behave in space in order to find the most appropriate solution to bring the crew back. This could be considered as the first approach towards the concept of Digital Twin.
There are many different definitions of the concept of Digital Twin, one of the first being given by Michael Grieves, an expert in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The definition of Grieves was focused on the virtual comparison between what had been produced with the previous product design (produced vs designed), with the aim of improving production processes1. The field of application of Digital Twin is very broad, as are the possible definitions. In general terms, we can consider a Digital Twin as a digital representation of a physical asset, or a process or system, from the real physical world.
Digital twins are based on their fidelity to reality, to the physical world, allowing us to make future predictions and optimisations. The intention is that both ecosystems, that of the physical world and the ecosystem of the Digital Twin (with the representation of the virtual world), have a co-evolution with each other. That is, they are affected by each other in a synchronised manner. This is possible because both models are automatically connected in a bi-directional way. When there is only the automatic connection in a uni-directional way, and that would go from the real model existing in the physical world to the digital model of the virtual world, we cannot call it as such a Digital Twin. For these cases it would be called Digital Shadow. A digital model by itself could not be considered a Digital Twin if there is no automatic connection between the physical and the virtual world. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) together with Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, including Machine Learning (ML), allow the Digital Twin to learn, predict and simulate future behaviour to improve its operation.
And all this Digital Twin thing, for what’
The use of digital twins can be used in numerous fields, for example in industrial manufacturing lines, to improve production processes, or aspects such as energy and environmental sustainability, fields in which projects such as ECOFACT are currently working. Another use of digital twins could be their applications in Smart Cities, which could improve road management, waste collection, etc. At the building level, its application can be useful both at the tertiary level (those buildings dedicated to the service sector), for example an airport, where it could be used to predict and manage the building more adequately based on usage patterns associated with scheduled air traffic. It is also useful in commercial or industrial buildings, focusing in this case on the building itself, and not on the production line mentioned above. At the residential level, the Digital Building Twin (DBT) could also be of great use to us, as we could predict the thermal behaviour of the building, associated with usage patterns, in order to improve the thermal conditioning of the indoor environment and minimise the energy consumption, among other options.
CARTIF has been working for some time on the creation of Digital Models of building based on BIM (Building Information Modelling), for different purposes, such us improving decision-making when carrying out deep renovation buildings projects. In this case, the use of BIM is intended to achieve a more appropriate renovation, and to reduce the time and cost in this renovation projects, with projects such as OptEEmAL or BIM-SPEED. The use of BIM models would function as a facilitator for the integration of the static (Physical world) and dynamic (logical and Digital world from IoT-Internet of Things network data) systems of a building. In addition, the use of BIM provides control over all phases of a building’s life cycle, from design, construction, commissioning of systems, the operation and maintenance phase, as well as possible demolition.
Concept of linking the Physical and Digital world through BIM-based Digital Twins
The challenge ahead of us in the coming years, focused on achieving climate-neutral cities that are more sustainable, functional and inclusive, suggests that the use of digital twins will be increasingly used in these areas, thanks to the benefits they can bring.
It is a well-know fact how our environment has changed dramatically in the last years. This enviroment is in constant transformation, with uncertainities and aspects that are difficult to predict.
Construction sector in particular, hasn´t been oblivious to such changes. In Europe has a huge weight on the economies recovery, having a positive evolution that is expected to mantain. Nowadays we can talk about the confluence of two currents that affect to those growth. On one side, one that favours it: the stimules that receives with Next Generation funds. But on the other side, raw materials shoratge and the increase of prices to which is added the recurring problem of manpower shortage act against them. As well as was indicated in its projections at the end of 2021 the Euroconstruct report, construction sector at a european level will preserve inertia to grow in 2022 (3.65%), although for 2023 (1.5%) and 2024 (1.2%) it is considered a moderate advance.
In case of Spain, also pointed out a 8%growth in 2022. However, uncertainity has increased due to aspects like the inflation evolution and the deployment of the Recovery Plan defrayed by the aforementioned european funds. Although this funds offered a great potential for a growth of the activity, mainly in the rehabilitation case, it is also true that uncertainity wouldn´t allow reaching all the development that could be expected.
In addition to the problems that is facing the economy, the sector lso has to face huge challenges at a european level such as sustainability and digitalization. Traditionally the construction sector has not lent the same atention to innovation than other industrial sectors. Putting the focus on these aspects will allow a change on this industry, being both undoubtedly, the tracks of innovation of the sector.
It is necessary to think in a new approach, being the innovation an opportunity to create value. A way to accelerate this innovation process and improve the quality of its results pass through the collaborative research.
From the UE it is work is being actively pursued to strengthen the framework that support the focus of open innovation. The open innovation paradgime consist on “an innovation model based in a network and collaboration, in the co-creation betweent all the society actors crossing the organizational limits more over the normal collaboration schemes. This model allows reaching a great competitive advantage, as well as innovation benefits for a huge number of collaborators“.
A great example of open innovation collaborative european project is Metabuilding Labs project in which CARTIF participates and among whose objectives is the construction of an innovation system for the sector. This will include a national innovation system organized as “metaclusters” in the form of National Construction Technology Platforms. Some of those systems already exist and in other cases it will be necessary develop it as part of the project.
With its development, an open type of innovation is sought, gathering all the interesed parts of the value chain of the environment constructed in a new innovation ecosystem. All that through a sectorial digital platform and of a supranational grid of the facilities, capacities and OITB test services (Open Innovation Test Beds). This network covers 12 countries with a unique entry, the platform.
The objective of the open innovation test benches is making the new technological advances available for companies and users. This allows to advance in the introduction of compounds and elements in the market, going from the valorisation on laboratories to the prototype on indsutrial environments.
The development of the platform will allow a fluid communication and a dynamic mapping of the actives and environment resources both at a national an regional level. Innovative SMEs, will thus have access to resources, looking for involving it and giving supprot. This will achieve a critical mass taking advantage the consortium networks that allows them to develop and test new building envelope innovative solutions.
Inside these test facilities that will be offered, we can find the O3BET Building Enveloped Testbeds, The consortium will design, develop and give eight innovative test facilities for enveloped building elements. These facilites at a 1:1 scale, in real, affordable, industrialised conditions with all the sensors and needed equipment bridge the gap between laboratories tests and huge scale buildings, maintaning under control all the need interior conditions and letting that the outside conditions change in a real environment.
O3BET involved Open Source, Open Data and Open Access.
Open Source. It will be design such as an open BIM model available to all the actors, that take advantage of the maximum capacities of this methodology so partners and third arties easily replicated in all Europe.
Open Data. For any test, monitored data will be consolidated and storage in a open data platform, giving access to all and as such to reinforce open science and innovation.
Open Access. At OITB context, also applicable for O3BET. Any interested user can access to the facilities, capacities and services of the test benches, independently if it is partner of the consortium or not. Metabuilding Labs platform members will have more favourable conditions. Will be sought the way to facilitate SMEs participation considering its size and capacity to find their most suitable test facilities.
With the development of this type of collaboration a component to the traditional innovation focus is added, boosting a nearest participation to the productive and product and technology development phase and favouring the value creation. Obviously, current difficulties for new business growth (particularly in construction) will not be solved by this type of initiative alone, but they can help to consolidate its progressive and necessary transformation.
“Innovation is a risky activity whose main risk is not practising it”
