The INHERIT latest publication turns the project’s holistic assessment framework into a sensor-based service that helps building managers monitor, evaluate and improve indoor comfort in historic buildings without compromising their cultural value.
Historic buildings remain in daily use across Europe, yet strict conservation rules often rule out the invasive retrofits (new insulation, replacement windows, mechanical ventilation) that would normally be used to bring indoor environmental quality (IEQ) up to modern standards. The result is a persistent tension between preserving heritage fabric and ensuring the comfort, health and productivity of the people who occupy these buildings every day.
INHERIT addresses this tension through a paper, “Smart Assessment and Enhancement of Indoor Environmental Quality in Cultural Heritage Buildings”, authored by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The paper presents a data-driven, non-invasive service that monitors thermal, visual and acoustic comfort together with indoor air quality (IAQ), and translates the results into concrete, heritage-sensitive recommendations for building managers.
At the core of the service is a penalty-based scoring method. Sensor readings for temperature, humidity, CO2, illuminance and noise are compared against the bounds set out in the EN 16798-1:2019 standard (Category III) and classified as acceptable, mildly deviating or severely deviating. These classifications feed a Penalty Score, ranging from 0 to 2, that flags the months, weekdays and hours in which conditions are most likely to fall short. A recommendation engine then converts the share of compliant readings into a tiered response: no action, behavioural changes, soft measures such as HVAC recalibration or temporary shading, or, in the most severe cases, structural renovation.
The service itself is built as a three-layer web application – a PostgreSQL database, a Python/FastAPI application layer, and a React/TypeScript presentation layer – and is organised around four user-facing pages: a homepage overview of all monitored rooms, a live monitoring view, a historical patterns explorer, and an insights page that combines performance indicators with targeted, ready-to-use recommendations.
The approach was validated over seven months (September 2024 to April 2025) at a real cultural heritage site: the building of the Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (ELLET) in the historic centre of Athens, a 19th-century structure renovated in 1990 and now used as an events venue and office space. The analysis found that CO2 levels, humidity and noise were consistently within acceptable bounds across the monitored rooms, while temperature and, especially, illuminance showed recurring, room-specific deviations – pointing to the need for soft measures or structural interventions concentrated on lighting and thermal comfort rather than blanket, heritage-incompatible renovations.
This work builds directly on the INHERIT consortium’s earlier methodological contribution, which set out the fourteen assessment criteria and the multi-criteria decision-making approach underpinning INHERIT’s broader evaluation methodology. Together, the two papers show how INHERIT’s conceptual framework for evaluating cultural heritage buildings is being put into practice through operational, sensor-based tools that support energy managers, conservation specialists and public authorities in prioritising interventions that respect historic value while improving occupant comfort.
Read the full paper here.
Cover photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash