Legal Aspects on Cultural Values and Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment – A Sustainable Balance of Public Interests

Improved energy efficiency and increased use of renewables within the building stock is crucial to ensure the reach of international and national climate goals, such as the CO2 neutral society. Exciting buildings needs to be retrofitted and heated by renewable energy sources. This may however lead to conflicts with other sustainability goals such as the preservation of cultural heritage values within the built environment. If conflicts can be avoided and attention paid both to improved use and production of energy and the preservation of built cultural heritage will to a large extent depend on the design of the legislation. In Sweden there are many parallel laws regulating environmental issues, building and planning and preservation of cultural heritage. Thus, the legal system as a whole must be coherent and without deficits, loop-holes and conflicts contradicting goal fulfilment. Moreover, the norms must be effectively applied and complied with. RECO is an interdisciplinary research project assessing the effectiveness of the Swedish legal system in reaching energy goals while preserving heritage values. This assessment has been carried out through study of legal works, case law, case studies and a national survey. This article presents and elaborates on some results from the project.

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Legal Aspects on Cultural Values and Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment—A Sustainable Balance of Public Interests?

Heritage ◽

10.3390/heritage4040194 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 3507-3522

Author(s):

Anna Christiernsson ◽

Mia Geijer ◽

Melina Malafry

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Built Environment ◽

Cultural Values ◽

Legal System ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Decisive Role ◽

Legal Aspects ◽

Building Stock ◽

Energy Agency

Improved energy efficiency and increased use of renewables within the building stock is crucial to ensure the achievement of international and national climate goals, such as bringing about a carbon neutral society. The existing buildings needs to be retrofitted and heated by renewable energy sources. However, this may lead to conflicts with other sustainability goals, such as the preservation of cultural heritage values within the built environment. The design of the legal system can be assumed to have a decisive role in well-developed Rechtsstaats in how these conflicts are handled. One important criterion for the achievement of overall sustainability objectives is that the legal system as a whole is coherent and without deficits, loopholes, and conflicts contradicting goal fulfilment. Moreover, the norms must be effectively applied and complied with. This article presents and elaborates on deficits in the legal system and its application, in particular within the land use planning and building legislation and the heritage protection law, in handling the conflicts between reaching energy goals while preserving heritage values and achieving a sustainable development. The important deficits identified include the lack of legal requirements on the adoption of holistic approaches and the assurance of adequate knowledge in the planning and building processes. The analyses have been carried out through interdisciplinary cooperation within the research project Law, Sustainable Energy Use and Protection of Heritage (RECO), funded by the Swedish Energy Agency.

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Is the High Quality Baukultur a Monkey Wrench in the Global Climate Challenges?

Environmental and Climate Technologies ◽

10.2478/rtuect-2019-0092 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 230-244 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andra Blumberga ◽

Ruta Vanaga ◽

Juris Antuzs ◽

Ritvars Freimanis ◽

Edgars Bondars ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Urban Regeneration ◽

High Energy ◽

Cultural Value ◽

City Centre ◽

Positive Energy ◽

Multi Criteria Analysis ◽

Energy Efficiency Potential

Abstract The EU 2030 climate package calls for raising energy efficiency, increasing usage of RES and decreasing the carbon footprint. There are stringent requirements for new buildings, but the energy efficiency potential in the existing building stock is still not fully explored. The latest trend in urban energy efficiency is the Positive Energy Block (PEB) strategies for new developments. It includes raising building energy efficiency, optimizing energy flow and implementing renewable energy sources (RES). Transforming all existing blocks in a city centre to a PEB would radically change the pattern of energy supply and consumption. European cities have historic centres with great architectural and cultural value. Any urban regeneration strategies must respect and preserve historic values. This paper describes double multi-criteria analysis evaluating urban blocks from both the energy efficiency and cultural heritage perspective with the goal to select the sample block for a “Smart urban regeneration – transition to the Positive Energy Block” case study. Proposed criteria for multi-criteria analysis to evaluate cultural heritage, liveability and energy efficiency potential describes specific qualities of the urban block. The obtained results show that blocks with higher cultural value show less energy efficiency potential and vice versa. It is recommended to apply cultural value and liveability qualities in the Smart urban regeneration process to those blocks with high energy efficiency potential.

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HVAC’s Role in the Decarbonisation of the Existing BuildingStock - case Finland

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202124613005 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 246 ◽

pp. 13005

Author(s):

Terttu Vainio ◽

Eero Nippala ◽

Timo Kauppinen

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Efficient ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Building Automation ◽

Existing Buildings ◽

Building Stock ◽

Existing Building ◽

Target State ◽

Automation Systems

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive together with the Energy Efficiency Directive and Renewable Energy Sources Directive define the frame and target state for energy performance of the existing building stock. This should be very energy efficient and decarbonised by 2050. The Finnish target is more ambitious, to achieve the target state already in 2035. In this paper, we discuss and concretise the role of HVAC in overcoming the challenge. Buildings in the Nordic countries are already very energy efficient. Structural improvements of energy efficiency are relatively expensive and have limited potential for energy saving. The best cost-benefit ratio can be obtained by combining HVAC with dynamic building automation systems. Also the EPBD calls for improvement of building automation systems and related measurements in new as well as existing buildings. The performance of buildings can be verified and deviations can be detected by monitoring-based commissioning during their life cycle. This means that special attention must be paid to the instrumentation level and an improved online reporting system for stakeholders. As a conclusion, we see that HVAC systems are in a key role in decarbonisation of existing buildings and a strategic sector on the way to a carbon-neutral society.

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Public Domain and the Copyright. State Participation and Public Interests in the Information Age

Observatory of Culture ◽

10.25281/2072-3156-2015-0-5-32-36 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 32-36

Author(s):

Ivan I. Zasursky

Keyword(s):

Intellectual Property ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Cultural Values ◽

Information Age ◽

Public Domain ◽

Public Access ◽

Public Interests ◽

The Public ◽

State Participation

The article presents a review of development of the copyright system and brings up the issue of public domain. The role of state is considered to be in dissemination, conservation and augmentation of cultural values, knowledge and information. Currently, the attempts to protect intellectual property and interests of the industry in Russia jeopardize the public access to the objects of public cultural heritage. The author suggests 10 steps necessary to develop the public domain in the field of culture and science and to transform the current copyright standards.

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Energy refurbishment of public buildings under cultural heritage protection in Serbia: Constraints and potentials

Thermal Science ◽

10.2298/tsci170601226j ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (Suppl. 4) ◽

pp. 1285-1296

Author(s):

Milica Jovanovic-Popovic ◽

Ljiljana Djukanovic ◽

Milos Nedic

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

National Level ◽

Building Stock ◽

Certification Process ◽

National Assembly ◽

Improve Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Assessment ◽

Heritage Protection ◽

Made In

By harmonizing national legislation to European codes concerning energy efficiency in building sector, Serbia took commitment to improve energy efficiency of national government buildings. Following the Directive 2012/27/EU principles, refurbishment of this part of building stock is recognized as a leading example in long-therm process of applying energy efficiency regulations at national level. Initial steps in implementation of adopted energy efficiency principles were made in Serbia during 2015, when first energy certificates for three most valuable buildings of national authorities (Government building, The National Assembly, and the Palace of Serbia) were issued. This paper will present results obtained during energy-assessment and energy-certification process of this particular buildings, showing at the same time their specificity, that pretty much traces possible category and range of proposed energy refurbishment scenarios.

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Flagships of the Dutch Welfare State in Transformation: A Transformation Framework for Balancing Sustainability and Cultural Values in Energy-Efficient Renovation of Postwar Walk-Up Apartment Buildings

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10072562 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 2562 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Leo Oorschot ◽

Lidwine Spoormans ◽

Sabira El Messlaki ◽

Thaleia Konstantinou ◽

Tim de Jonge ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Cultural Values ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Housing Stock ◽

Housing Associations ◽

General Transformation ◽

Increase Energy Efficiency ◽

Apartment Buildings ◽

Design Solutions

Increasing energy efficiency of the housing stock is one of the largest challenges in the built environment today. In line with the international Paris-Climate-Change-Conference 2015, Dutch municipalities and housing associations have embraced the ambition to achieve carbon neutrality for their social housing stock by 2050. However, most deep renovation designs for increasing the energy efficiency of dwellings focus on the relatively easy portion of the housing stock: postwar row housing. Furthermore, such design solutions are mostly produced without much care for architectural quality and cultural heritage, nor for testing for consumer preferences. Yet, such aspects are of major importance in tenement housing, particularly regarding the architectural quality of the huge numbers of walk-up apartment buildings from the inter- and postwar periods owned by housing associations in the larger cities. Renovation of buildings of this typology is more complex because of, among others, technical, social, and heritage factors. To support decisions in this complex context, a General Transformation Framework and a Roadmap has been developed for generating design solutions for deep renovation of representative parts of postwar walk-up apartment buildings with the aim to increase energy efficiency; retain its architectural legibility and cultural heritage value; and allow for the presentation of (end) users, with various options for adaptation to assess their preferences.

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PROBLEMS OF CLASSIFICATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE OBJECTS

Sociopolitical sciences ◽

10.33693/2223-0092-2020-10-2-158-168 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 158-168

Author(s):

SVETLANA IVANOVA ◽

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Cultural Values ◽

Research Work ◽

Cultural Property ◽

Cultural Inheritance ◽

Federal Laws ◽

Cultural Heritage Objects ◽

Cultural Monuments

The purpose of the research work is to analyze the norms of Federal laws, as well as the laws of the Russian Federation's constituent entities, devoted to the definitions and classification of the concepts “cultural heritage”, “historical and cultural monuments”, “cultural values”. Conclusions obtained in the course of the research: based on the study of current legislation, it is concluded that the definitions of “cultural values”, “cultural property”, “objects of cultural inheritance” contained in various normative legal acts differ in content. Based on the research, the author proposes the concept of “cultural values”.

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