Standardizing the indoor climate in historic buildings: opportunities, challenges and ways forward

Abstract

Standardization for indoor climate control in historic buildings has recently taken a new direction with standards and guidelines that focus more on decision processes than outcomes. The objective of the paper is to explore and discuss how standards can evolve to both fit and guide decision processes to facilitate a sustainable management of historic buildings. Interviews with engineers and heritage professionals in the Church of Sweden in combination with indoor climate monitoring were used to understand the technical and organizational context. The results show that the development of process standards solves some of the problems related to the conventional outcome-oriented approach by opening up for a wider set of solutions. However, available guidelines are difficult to apply and integrate in the existing management of churches. A stronger focus on strategic feedback and an increased use of local guidelines are suggested.