Investigating stakeholders’ opinion on energy retrofit of historic buildings, grasping their needs and experiences. An overview on the use of retrofit guidelines and decisional tools

This paper aims to explore what information do refurbishment stakeholders find useful to support the decision-making and what are the key points during the retrofit design process to consider. Decisions concerning the improvement of conditions and performance of historic buildings are not only about solving technical problems: decisions revolved around balancing different objectives and value judgments. Hence, what guides different stakeholders in constructing their opinions? How are they influenced? What matters more in the process? For this purpose, in this article different stakeholders have been interviewed to understand how to activate a negotiation process that functions in real-life interactions, with the support of experts in social science. The observations of many heritage officers, architects and energy professionals were gathered to better understand how energy retrofit guidelines, the EN 16883:2017 and the Italian retrofit guidelines for historic buildings by the Cultural Heritage Ministry (MiBACT), are used in practice.