Historical Building Energy Retrofit Focusing on the Whole Life Cycle Assessment—A Systematic Literature Review

Obead, Rania; Khaddour, Lina; D'Amico, Bernardino

Abstract

Climate change is becoming one of humanity's major concerns. Remarkable steps are being implemented to reduce global emissions in all economic sectors, including the built environment. Historical buildings use a considerable amount of energy and produce emissions; therefore, retrofitting these buildings will enhance the global path towards zero-emissions targets. This paper applies a systematic literature review methodology to identify the research around energy efficiency retrofit in historical buildings, then analyzes this data to find out the common scopes of these studies. After that, the study focuses on the research that covered the life cycle assessment. Lastly, the paper identifies where the research in this field stands, what is accomplished, and what needs to be done. The study used two databases, ScienceDirect and the Web of Science. The output of this study that evaluated 362 publications showed that research in historical building energy efficiency has increased significantly in the last ten years. A few studies cover the topic of whole life cycle assessments and mainly focus on specific processes: energy/emissions, or specific suggested interventions. The suggested future plans for research in this area are to consider the whole life energy and emissions in retrofitted historical buildings.

Citation

Obead, R., Khaddour, L., & D'Amico, B. (2025). Historical Building Energy Retrofit Focusing on the Whole Life Cycle Assessment—A Systematic Literature Review. Architecture, 5(3), Article 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/architecture5030049

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 8, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jul 11, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Jul 11, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2025
• Journal: Architecture
• Print ISSN: 2673-8945
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 49
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/architecture5030049
• Keywords: historical buildings; retrofit; energy efficiency; life cycle assessment
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/5/3/49