The European Summer School on the Refurbishment of Historic Buildings was a part of the FuturHist Retrofit Academy, which took part in Kraków and Tomaszowice on 7–13 September 2026. A detailed summary of the entire week’s program can be found here.
In this post, we’re highlighting the 20 participants of our academy, who spent the week working in 4 teams of 5 on 4 different buildings, all following our typological approach. The buildings were made available by Zarząd Budynków Komunalnych w Krakowie, our project partner. Below are their final presentations, the results of their hard work over the past week:
GROUP 1: Urban villa (Willa miejska, built in 1923) located at Kraszewskiego 22
Maria Arno
Mila Martelli
Katarzyna Dąbkowska
Yasemin Erol Sevim
Bruno Quelhas da Silva
Key elements include insulating the roof between rafters or across the attic floor to protect the exterior profile, repairing timber box windows and reglazing inner sashes with vacuum glazing units, installing eight courtyard roof PV panels generating 3.2 kW annually, and combining a heat pump with an upgraded district heating connection.
GROUP 2: Historic tenement building located at Syrokomli 5
Agata Zapart
Banu Pekol
Ezgi Topçu
Hayriye İsmailoğlu
Nicola Pio Di Tommaso
The project focuses on a comprehensive energy retrofit strategy for a historic multi-story tenement. Recommendations include applying thermal plaster to the front facade alongside hemp fiber insulation on the garden elevation, insulating the roof with 24 cm of hemp fiber under bitumen sheeting, supporting district heating with an air source heat pump in the garden, and placing 150 m² of photovoltaic panels on the garden-facing roof slope.
GROUP 3: Historic tenement house located at Dietla 53
Dariusz Borkowski
Giulia Anna Maria Cellie
Hatice Ayşegül Demir
Olutola Oyebanji
Maria Roberta Mallia
This project focuses on a heritage assessment and retrofit strategy for an 1889 historic apartment building under strict conservation constraints. Main aspects include restoring basement natural ventilation before laying foam glass floor insulation to create technical utility rooms, preserving the protected front elevation without external equipment or insulation, integrating heat pumps with mechanical heat recovery ventilation, and mounting color-matched photovoltaic panels on the courtyard roof slope.
GROUP 4: Historic mixed-use tenement built in 1843 at Długa 15
Aleena Majumdar
Bogna Drałus
Evi Coenen
Inna Klandorf
Lea Scholz
The project centers on user-focused retrofitting aimed at improving thermal comfort, accessibility, and energy affordability. Its main scope encompasses adding an elevator for senior residents, insulating the interior walls, roof, and ground floor, harvesting rainwater via a courtyard cistern, and deploying a hybrid gas heat pump system powered by rooftop photovoltaics.
Their hard work culminated on the final day with team presentations, where invited guests joined to spark lively discussions about the projects. The program concluded with a certificate ceremony to celebrate their achievement.
Take a look at the short video highlight from the final day!