Riga City Hall, the Royal Chancellery in Granada, and TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture have now reached a key milestone in the SMARTeeSTORY project: all three buildings are fully equipped, connected, and ready to operate as smart‑ready energy systems. Following an extensive period of installing sensors, smart devices, automation components, and digital infrastructure, the project has completed the step that ensures these systems work together reliably. Each historic building is now prepared for advanced energy management and optimisation.

With the buildings now fully equipped, the project has recently successfully completed the commissioning of the systems in all three herigate building. This is an essential step in SMARTeeSTORY, turning installed technology into a working, reliable system.

Up to this point, the work has been successfully carried out by Schneider Electric alongside the local partners responsible for each pilot: TU Delft for the Delft site, Cuerva Energia for Granada and the Riga Energy Agency for the Latvian demonstrator. Their roles were crucial in navigating the challenges that each heritage building presents during installation and commissioning.

Demo site updates

Riga

Focus: Upgrading the building’s intelligence layer and improving its ability to sense and respond to changes in user needs.

Particularities: Integration of EV chargers, installation of a new weather station and assessment of existing shading systems as part of the preparation for future automation.

Granada

Focus: Improving energy efficiency and user comfort through enhanced indoor environment control.

Particularities: A complex mix of historical architecture and modern building equipment requires careful integration of HVAC, fan coils and lighting into a responsive control environment.

Delft

Focus: Enhancing digital control over a selected office area to support the university’s carbon‑neutral goals.

Particularities: Optimisation of lighting, HVAC and smart blinds/shading control, alongside the integration of the weather station in a highly dynamic university setting.

Overall status

All three buildings are now fully instrumented, connected and prepared to support the implementation of the SMARTeeSTORY Building Energy Management System. The upcoming steps involve continuous data collection, deployment of control strategies and further refinement based on real operational conditions.

SMARTeeSTORY partner RINA has presented promising new research at the 13th International Conference on Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings and Smart Communities (IEECB&SC’26), demonstrating how advanced control strategies can significantly improve the performance of heritage office buildings. 

Nearly 23% of the European building stock dates back to before World War II, while renovation rates remain below 1% per year. These buildings are often subject to architectural constraints, such as protected façades and windows, that limit traditional retrofit options. As a result, the most effective lever for reducing energy consumption lies in the way existing systems are operated, including heating, ventilation, lighting, and shading. 

Conventional building management systems are still largely based on simple rule-based logic (e.g., “if temperature falls below a threshold, switch heating on”). While straightforward, this approach struggles to handle the complexity of large buildings with diverse occupancy patterns, varying comfort requirements, and multiple interacting systems. 

To address these limitations, SMARTeeSTORY partners investigated a multi-domain Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach. Unlike reactive control strategies, MPC is a method that anticipates future conditions, such as weather and occupancy, and continuously optimises system operation to minimise energy use and costs while maintaining indoor comfort and air quality within defined targets. 

Half the energy, full comfort 

The approach was tested through a detailed simulation of the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft, a large and complex historic building and one of the project’s demonstration sites. The model accounted for: 

• 8 thermal zones within the building 

• 3 thermal comfort archetypes representing different occupant preferences 

• Multiple dimensions of indoor environmental quality, including thermal comfort, air quality (CO₂, humidity, particulate matter), and visual comfort 

The MPC strategy was benchmarked against a conventional rule-based controller using the same building model and system configuration. Both approaches were evaluated over a 24-hour period with 15-minute time steps under varying occupancy scenarios. 

Compared to the rule-based approach, MPC delivered substantial improvements: 

• Approximately 50% reduction in thermal energy consumption, corresponding to about 148 kWh/m²/year of primary energy savings over the heating season 

• Operating costs were reduced from around €55/day to €27/day 

• Full compliance with thermal comfort requirements during occupied hours 

• Effective control of particulate matter and strong visual comfort performance, supported by a daylight-first strategy for lighting and shading 

Additionally, MPC demonstrated advanced operational behaviours that rule-based systems cannot replicate, including anticipatory preheating in the morning, intelligent trade-offs between ventilation and heat losses, and occupancy-aware temperature adjustments to operate near optimal comfort thresholds. 

From simulations to real buildings 

These results are based on physics-based simulations for a representative day and should be interpreted as indicative rather than definitive performance values. 

The next phase of the project will focus on refining the simulation framework and validating results using more detailed and consistent models. Partners also plan to integrate machine learning techniques to improve short-term heating demand forecasts and progressively deploy the control strategy in the real building. 

A digital path for heritage buildings 

The findings highlight a key insight: when physical retrofit options are limited, digital solutions can play a transformative role. Predictive control can effectively act as a “virtual retrofit”, saving energy and cost while preserving occupant comfort and respecting architectural constraints. 

SMARTeeSTORY demonstrates that intelligent control is more than an incremental improvement. It is a practical and scalable strategy to improve the energy performance of Europe’s historic building stock. 

SMARTeeSTORY’s mission is to build an intelligent building automation and control system for historic non-residential buildings. The integrated digital platform will combine monitoring, optimization, user interaction, and digital building tools into a single ecosystem. An important development in the platform is the finalization of one of the core components: TERA’s new cloud monitoring service.

What is the cloud monitoring service? 

The Cloud Monitoring Service helps building owners and facility managers understand how their buildings use energy. It gather information from different systems, puts it in one place, and shows it through simple dashboards. This makes it easier to spot unusual behaviours, track improvements and make smarter decisions.

How does the Cloud Monitoring Service work?

The objective of the Cloud Monitoring Service is to provide a unified environment for data analysis and system monitoring, enabling real-time visibility into energy behaviours, performance trends, and operational anomalies. By centralising data from multiple sources into a cloud-based infrastructure, the platform allows stakeholders to monitor key indicators through clear dashboards, interactive charts, and intuitive visual analytics.

Why a Cloud Monitoring Service?

One of the key strengths of the solution lies in its ability to transform complex datasets into accessible insights. Users will be able to explore energy flows, compare consumption and production patterns, and monitor system performance over time through dynamic visualisations. This helps simplify decision-making and supports optimisation strategies for energy efficiency and resource management.

Development previews: graphical visualisations of consumption and production over time

As shown in the development previews, the interface focuses on clarity and usability. Graphical representations of environmental and energy variables and temporal trends allow users to quickly identify irregular behaviours or performance peaks. In simple terms: dynamic charts helps users quickly see when something looks unusual or inefficient.

The upcoming release also showcases our contribution to the project through advanced cloud architecture and data management capabilities. The platform brings together monitoring tools, data storage, and analytics into one system. This makes it easier for operators to continuously observe building performance without juggling multiple tools.

Why This Matters for Building Owners, Cities, and Operators

• Easier detection of unusual energy use
• Faster decision‑making thanks to clear dashboards
• Better long‑term planning based on trends
• Less time needed to gather data manually

Overall, the Monitoring Service makes energy management easier, clearer, and more transparent. Whether you’re a building operator or a city energy planner, it provides the insights needed to act confidently and efficiently.

This service represents an important step toward improving how energy data is collected, visualised, and interpreted across distributed systems, supporting both technical stakeholders and end users in making informed decisions.

Beyond technical monitoring, the Monitoring Service contributes to the broader SMARTeeSTORY vision by enabling data-driven decision processes and supporting the digital transformation of energy management practices. It lays the groundwork for future enhancements, including advanced analytics, automated insights, and intelligent control mechanisms. This release marks an exciting milestone, highlighting how cloud technologies can support smarter, more transparent, and more efficient energy systems.

Author: Raffaele Piscitelli, Project Manager, TERA

As Europe moves toward a carbon-neutral future, the refurbishment of historic buildings presents a unique challenge: how do we achieve modern energy standards without losing cultural identity? The FuturHist Retrofit Academy offers a specialised, two-stage capacity-building programme designed to bridge the gap between heritage conservation and high-performance energy efficiency.

Co-organised by the Sendzimir Foundation and ICOMOS, with the participation of academic and technological partners involved in the Horizon Europe FuturHist project, this programme provides practitioners with the methodologies, tools, and innovative solutions developed within the project.

Fill in the enrollment form!

Who is the programme for?

This programme is specifically tailored for professionals operating within the European Union and associated countries who are looking to specialise in the sensitive retrofit of the historic building stock:

• Architects and Urban Designers
• Civil and Energy Engineers
• Building Sector Specialists (Conservation officers, energy auditors, and project managers)
• Emerging Professionals looking to enter the sustainable heritage sector.

What are the benefits of taking part?

By joining the FuturHist Retrofit Academy, you will:

• Gain Competitive Expertise: Master the “typological approach” to renovation – moving from time-consuming and expensive, one-off case studies to scalable, efficient retrofit models.
• Access Cutting-Edge Tech: Be among the first to explore and test the FuturHist Toolkit, a step-by-step decision support system that streamlines the planning of energy retrofits.
• Network Internationally: Build relationships with top-tier experts from across Europe, including partners from the FuturHist Horizon Europe project consortium.
• Future-Proof Your Career: Equip yourself with the skills to meet stringent European energy policies and green building standards for heritage assets.

What will you learn?

The curriculum is designed to transform theoretical knowledge into practical, billable skills:

• Technical Solutions: Deep dives into innovative passive solutions (biomaterials, self-healing lime renders, and window retrofits) and active systems (HVAC and Renewable Energy integration).
• Practical Implementation: Implement the knowledge gained to the real-life case study buildings in Krakow, Poland and other participating countries.
• Simulation & Assessment: Gain hands-on experience with hygrothermal simulation of building envelopes and Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA).
• Decision-Making: Learn a multidimensional methodology to balance energy performance, occupant comfort, and conservation compatibility.
• Policy & Standards: Navigate the legal and technical barriers of European building stock renovation.

The EU-funded SMARTeeSTORY project has launched a new Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) Calculation Web Tool to support the digital and energy transition of non-residential historic buildings across Europe.

Developed by TECNALIA and further enhanced in collaboration with RINA-C, the web-based tool enables building owners, energy experts and public authorities to assess how prepared historic buildings are to adopt smart technologies, while respecting heritage constraints.

Based on the European Commission’s official SRI framework (Method B – Expert SRI Assessment), the tool provides a guided and user-friendly interface for evaluating smart readiness. The latest version introduces advanced decision-support features, including target-setting based on energy, environmental or economic priorities, tailored suggestions for smart solutions, and a financial module offering high-level estimates of savings and cost-effectiveness.

The tool was tested and validated through three SMARTeeSTORY demonstrators in Riga (Latvia), Granada (Spain) and Delft (the Netherlands), all heritage-protected buildings. The assessments showed significant improvements in smart readiness, with post-intervention SRI scores reaching up to 83%, demonstrating that historic buildings can achieve high levels of smart readiness through carefully selected, non-invasive digital upgrades.

Designed for a wide range of stakeholders, from building owners and energy auditors to municipalities, designers and researchers, the SMARTeeSTORY SRI Web Tool supports informed decision-making and practical renovation planning. While tailored to historic buildings, it is also applicable to other building types, ensuring replicability and scalability across the European building stock.

The tool represents an important step towards improving energy performance, comfort and operational efficiency in Europe’s heritage buildings while preserving their cultural value.

How another EU project is tackling the same challenge we face: improving energy performance in heritage buildings without compromising their cultural value.

Upgrading historic buildings for the climate transition is a delicate balancing act. Like SMARTeeSTORY, the FuturHist project takes on this challenge head‑on: designing retrofit solutions that respect heritage while delivering measurable energy and comfort gains. Below, we introduce FuturHist and highlight where our approaches align, opening the door to shared learning and future collaboration.

What is FuturHist?

FuturHist is an EU-funded project developing scalable energy-efficient retrofit solutions for historic buildings while preserving their heritage value. It tests approaches in four real demo cases across Europe: in Edinburgh (SVR Lodge and Lister) in Scotland, Linköping in Sweden, Kraków in Poland, and Córdoba in Spain. In Córdoba, the demonstrator is a 17th-century heritage residential building at Plaza de la Corredera managed by the Agencia de la Vivienda y Rehabilitación de Andalucía.

FuturHist uses a typology approach, grouping historic buildings with similar features to create retrofit solutions that can be scaled and replicated across Europe.

Where FuturHist and SMARTeeSTORY align

While each project has its own scope and demonstrators, several common threads stand out:

Both projects treat cultural value as non-negotiable, designing energy upgrades that respect protected elements, original materials, and the visual character of façades and interiors.

We share a commitment to replication: documenting what works, why it works, and how it can be adapted elsewhere, moving beyond bespoke works to transferable solutions and guidance.

A focus on measured performance and user comfort underpins design choices, ensuring that efficiency gains are real, sustained, and balanced with occupant needs.

Multiple climate zones and regulatory contexts help stress-test retrofit packages and generate robust lessons for policymakers, owners, facility managers, and conservation authorities.

Both projects emphasise early and continuous coordination with residents, building owners/managers, and heritage bodies to ensure feasibility, acceptance, and long-term maintainability.

SMARTeeSTORY will continue to follow FuturHist’s progress and share insights that can accelerate safe, effective, and culturally respectful energy upgrades in Europe’s historic building stock. If you’re working on similar challenges or would like to exchange practices, get in touch! We’re keen to build bridges across projects.

SMARTeeSTORY project report "Interactions strategies between users and smart buildings control systems", led by TU Delft, has been officially approved by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).

The report authored by Alessandra Luna-Navarro, Pedro de la Barra, Pablo Martinez Alcaraz delivers insights into how users interact with smart building systems. The report highlights that well-designed interaction strategies are essential not only for comfort and user satisfaction but also for energy efficiency. Yet technical guidance for these strategies is largely missing in current standards. Researchers at TU Delft have developed a taxonomy for interaction strategies, distinguishing two main approaches:

• Automated control via direct sensing, where sensors monitor indoor environmental quality and occupancy to optimise building systems. While the technology allows advanced user interfaces and integration into control loops, these capabilities are underutilised.
• Direct user control, enabling occupants to adjust lighting, heating, or cooling in real time, offering immediate personalisation.
  

Applied to the three SMARTeeSTORY demo sites (i.e., Granada, Delft, and Riga), the analysis
confirmed that direct user control dominates, while information-based strategies remain limited. Questionnaires and experiments reveal that users particularly value control over heating, lighting, and cooling, prefer screen-based dashboards, and benefit from grouped controls.

The report also draws on scientific literature and technical standards, confirming that user
satisfaction depends on:
• Meeting expectations and providing the right balance between automation and personal
control
• Enabling two-way information flow between users and buildings
• Addressing privacy and trust concerns

Most importantly, the report highlights the importance of personalised user archetypes to capture individual interaction preferences. This concept was largely presented during the April 2025 training led by TU Delft experts.
This report lays a scientific and technical foundation for smarter, user-centered buildings, bridging gaps in current standards and offering actionable recommendations to enhance comfort, satisfaction, and energy efficiency. The findings will inform the next phase of SMARTeeSTORY, where interaction-related archetypes will be further developed.

Heritage Meets Innovation in the Energy Transition

Enlit Europe 2025 was a milestone event for the energy sector, and SMARTeeSTORY was proud to be part of it. As one of six EU-funded projects in the Smart Energy Cluster, SMARTeeSTORY joined forces with ReSCHOOL, ENPOWER, CRETE VALLEY, META BUILD, and DEDALUS to showcase how collaboration can accelerate Europe’s energy transition.

SMARTeeSTORY’s Role: Preserving Heritage While Driving the Energy Transition

SMARTeeSTORY focuses on retrofitting historic non-residential buildings with interoperable smart technologies, advanced control systems, and energy optimization solutions-while respecting heritage constraints. This approach ensures that Europe’s architectural legacy remains intact while contributing to climate goals.

At Enlit Europe, SMARTeeSTORy’s coordinator Matteo Porta presented in the Smart Energy Cluster session, highlighting our historic buildings as part of the energy transition. The discussion sparked strong interest among stakeholders, reinforcing the importance of integrating heritage into sustainable energy strategies.

A Shared Vision for Sustainable Energy

The Smart Energy Cluster brings together projects working across different parts of the energy value chain. Together, they demonstrate how Europe can combine building-level innovation, community-driven energy models, and smart grid integration to deliver scalable and citizen-centric decarbonisation strategies.

• ReSCHOOL empowers energy communities with tools to manage and trade flexibility, enabling citizens and local stakeholders to actively participate in energy markets.
• ENPOWER transforms passive consumers into active “energy citizens” through ICT, AI, blockchain, and behavioral insights.
• CRETE VALLEY creates a Renewable Energy Valley in Crete, integrating multiple renewable sources and community-driven business models in a real-world Living Lab.
• META BUILD delivers electrification technologies and digital tools for residential and commercial buildings, promoting integrated solutions like heat pumps, PV systems, and energy storage.
• DEDALUS develops a demand response ecosystem using digital twins, AI, and social science insights to optimize residential energy consumption.

Why Collaboration Matters

By presenting as a unified cluster, these projects demonstrated how cross-sector partnerships can overcome regulatory, financial, technical, and behavioral barriers. The dedicated workshop sessions explored strategies for smart building renovation, energy efficiency, flexibility management, and citizen engagement, key pillars for a sustainable future.

Looking Ahead

Enlit Europe reminded us that the energy transition isn’t just about technology - it’s about people, partnerships, and bold ideas coming together. SMARTeeSTORY will continue working with its cluster partners to make energy systems more inclusive, efficient, and impactful across Europe.

From 8-10th of October, the Sustainable Places Conference (SP25) brought together leading voices in energy efficiency and smart building innovation. SMARTeeSTORY hosted a dynamic and forward-looking workshop "Smart Readiness in Action: Unlocking energy efficiency and comfort in buildings" joined by 5 other fellow EU funded projects working with the SRI.

A Multi-Faceted Agenda

Moderated by Valerie Bahr from Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, the workshop was structured around three thematic focuses:

1. SRI in the Operative – Tools and Methodologies: Matteo PORTA (RINA Consulting), Giannis Papias (NTUA) and Konstantinos Mamis (Que Technologies) showcased their digital tools the SRI calculator, SMURF Assessment Tool, and the CHRONICLE solution emphasizing their application in historic buildings and operational contexts from projects SMARTeeSTORY, BuildON, and CHRONICLE.
2. Demonstrations in Practice: Keovathana Run, Côte d’Azur University shared real-world insights from INBUILT's demonstration sites in varying building sites, alongside the sites in SMARTeeSTORY and REHOUSE, illustrating how SRI implementation is driving innovation and measurable impact through the hands-on demonstrations.
3. Beyond Energy: Discussions extended to how SRI supports broader goals like resilience and occupant comfort, with Łukasz Wilczyński (ASM Research) presenting resilience-based support tools aligned with indoor environmental quality in the project MULTICARE. Other aspects of a building influenced by the SRI were also presented including the Data Driven Building Performance Framework in CHRONICLE and the user-centered approach in SMARTeeSTORY.

Cross-Project Dialogue and Reflections

Each focus segment concluded with shared reflections from the audience and panel discussions, encouraging inter-project learning and sparking questions about the future of smart buildings.

Looking Ahead

As the SRI framework continues to evolve, the SP25 workshop underscored its growing relevance across European projects. From digital tools to policy alignment, the session highlighted how smart readiness is becoming a cornerstone of sustainable building strategies. This coupled with the inclusion of the SP25 Thematic Track - Smart Readiness Indicator: Market Uptake signals the increasing relevance of the SRI in retrofits toward more energy efficient buildings. The focus of the segment also indicates that there a shift from research into figuring out the next steps to facilitate adoption of the SRI by the industry.

Session Recording

Can smart facades really make buildings greener and more comfortable? Our latest SMARTeeSTORY study says: It's complicated.

In the push for smarter, more sustainable buildings, automated façades, like motorised blinds or responsive shading systems, are often seen as a game-changer. They promise better energy efficiency, improved indoor comfort, and happier occupants. But do they really deliver on all fronts? 

A recent scientific review for the SMARTeeSTORY project and led by the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft), took a deep dive into nearly 100 studies to find out. Researchers looked at how these systems perform in real office buildings, lab experiments, and computer simulations. The results? Automated façades do help save energy, especially by reducing lighting and cooling needs. They’re also better at controlling glare and excessive daylight compared to manual systems. 

However, when it comes to how people actually feel about them, the picture is less clear. Some occupants prefer the control and flexibility of manual systems, while others appreciate the automation. And while visual comfort has been studied extensively, other factors like air quality and thermal comfort need more attention. 

The study highlights the need for more research that focuses on real people in real buildings—not just simulations or lab tests. Understanding how occupants interact with these systems is key to designing buildings that are not only energy-efficient but also truly comfortable and user-friendly. 

This research is part of SMARTeeSTORY’s broader mission to make historic and complex buildings smarter and more sustainable, without compromising comfort or heritage. 

Read the publication:

Influence of automated façades on comfort and energy: A critical review
P. de la Barra, E. Brembilla, A. Prieto, C. Vásquez, U. Knaack, A. Luna-Navarro,
Influence of automated façades on comfort and energy: A critical review (2025), Energy and Buildings, Volume 347, Part B, ISSN 0378-7788, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116290.

Access TU Delft’s and all SMARTeeSTORY scientific publications here and on ZENODO.