20th-Century architectural heritage adaptation to present climate challenges: Interdisciplinary methods for a rational intervention

By the end of the 1990s in France, the first labels have been created to distinguish the singularity of 20th-century architecture. However, a large part of its building stock suffers from energy deficiencies, and most of them need major retrofitting to align with today’s habitability standards. If current technologies offer a wide array of devices that meet performance demands, their implementation does not always comply with heritage protection goals. As part of a transdisciplinary research project, our team studies the acceptability and feasibility of the renovation of various buildings of the 20th-century, using “the ventilated double-skin”. The goal is to set renovation protocols that incorporate architectural and cultural evaluation in the technical analysis of energy and comfort needs. In this paper, we present our methodology and first results and aim to highlight the importance of complementary approaches to help inform sustainable interventions on this unique heritage.