External Advisory Board
We proudly present the Members of the FuturHist’s External Advisory Board (EAB). EAB serves an essential advisory role in the project by ensuring alignment with heritage conservation principles, validating the practical relevance of application tools, confirming the market relevance of developed solutions, and fostering connections for potential collaboration beyond the project’s conclusion.
Riin Alatalu
Estonian Academy of Arts, ICOMOS, Estonia
Riin Alatalu is an Associate Professor of Cultural Heritage and Conservation at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Vice-President of ICOMOS, Coordinator of UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Vice-Chair of Estonian Heritage Conservation Council, Member of ICOMOS Rights-Based Approaches working group, CIVVIH, ICLAFI and ISC20C, as well as Member of the European Heritage Label Panel.
Riin Alatalu has worked in the National Heritage Board, Tallinn Culture and Heritage Department and the Estonian Ministry of Culture in leading positions.
She holds a PhD in ‘Heritage in Transitional Society from Nation’s Conscience in the Estonian SSR into the Harasser of the Private Owner in the Republic of Estonia’. Riin Alatalu has actively participated in the Urban Agenda Dissonant Heritage working group, advocated for the preservation and contextualisation of dissonant heritage in Estonia, and organised several related courses and lectures.
Riin Alatalu has run several campaigns, including the Estonian National Cultural Heritage Year in 2013, European Cultural Heritage Days, Visit Baltic Manors, and other awareness-raising activities. She has also initiated cooperation with decision-makers and a wider audience.
Lila Angelaka
Historic Environment Scotland, the UK
Lila Angelaka has a graduate degree in engineering in building restoration and renovation from Greece (2007) and an MSc in architectural conservation from the University of Edinburgh (2010). She has over 15 years of international experience in architecture and heritage and worked in various architectural practices and heritage organisations before joining Historic Scotland (now Historic Environment Scotland/HES) in 2013 as a Historic Buildings Adviser Officer in the Planning, Consent and Advice Service.
In 2019, Lila started working as a Senior Technical Officer in Historic Environment Scotland’s Technical Conservation Team. There, she is involved in delivering various conservation and energy efficiency retrofit projects and carrying out/commissioning relevant technical research. She is also a writer and the lead editor for several of HES’s technical publications and blogs, such as Technical Papers and Refurbishment Case Studies.
In her current role, Lila also has an advisory role, both within and externally, and oversees HES’s Technical Enquiry service, which deals with various technical conservation enquiries across Scotland. She also delivers outreach around conservation, energy retrofit, and climate change adaptation to homeowners and professionals. She teaches formal qualification courses, such as the Level 3 Award in Energy Efficiency in Traditional Buildings and previously the MSc course in Building Conservation delivered by HES.
Monika Bogdanowska
Cracow University of Technology, Poland
Monika Bogdanowska is a graduate of the Faculty of Conservation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (1987), a doctor of technical sciences (architecture and urban planning, 2005), and obtained her habilitation in the discipline of art restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (2012). Since 1998, she has been employed at the Department of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Cracow University of Technology.
Monika Bogdanowska is the author of numerous publications (including four books) on heritage protection and art restoration. She completed two research grants devoted to creating a new model of an online dictionary of professional terminology and studying the equivalence of specialist terminology in the fields of conservation, architecture, and auxiliary sciences. She also participated in many conservation projects.
In 2019, Monika Bogdanowska was appointed by the General Conservator of Monuments as the Małopolska Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments. She was the director of the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Kraków until 2021 and a deputy director of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Poland from 2022 to 2024.
She continues her scientific and didactic duties at the Cracow University of Technology.
Monika Bogdanowska is a member of the ICOMOS Polish National Committee and, since 2017, a member of the ICOMOS Poland Board.
Bill Bordass
Heritage Expertise of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, Usable Building Trust, the UK
Dr Bill Bordass is a scientist who in 1970 moved from research in physical chemistry to the multi-skilled design practice RMJM London. In 1975, he became an Associate in charge of building services, energy and environmental design. In 1984, he set up William Bordass Associates, which, until 2016, assisted clients, designers and managers with research, briefing, project reviews, performance monitoring and troubleshooting of existing, new and historic buildings.
He is now a research and policy adviser to Usable Building Trust, which promotes better buildings by exploring how they actually work and the relationships between people, policies, processes, management, fabric and technologies. Projects included numerous case studies, reviews of energy demonstration projects, the Probe series of 20 newly-completed buildings (1995-2002), and environmental science advice to English Heritage. He has worked on in-use energy reporting and benchmarking in the EU, UK, Australia, and the USA, and in 2008, he received CIBSE’s first low-carbon pioneer award.
He was on the committee for British Standard PAS 2038:2021 on retrofitting non-domestic buildings. He is currently on the Technical and Research Committee of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Heritage working group of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. His publications include books on church heating and museum storage and contributions to numerous guidance documents, including the Soft Landings framework, which aims to improve the focus of building contracts on what happens after handover and on user-friendly control systems.
Current interests include the potential for people-first “soft” measures, such as helping occupiers appreciate the strengths, weaknesses, and potential of their buildings and try out measures to improve their health, comfort, and energy performance with the minimum risk and capital outlay.
Beatriz Castellano Bravo
Andalusian Institute for Historic Heritage, Spain
Beatriz Castellano Bravo is Head of the Projects Department of the Andalusian Institute for Historic Heritage (IAPH). Architect, she holds a Master’s in Architecture and Historical Heritage from the University of Seville (2004).
Since 2008, she has been part of the Projects Department of the IAPH, where she has worked in interdisciplinary teams developing diagnostic and cultural assessment reports, planning for conservation and intervention projects in built Andalusian historic heritage, and museography and exhibition projects. Among her other works, the landscape intervention in the Ensenada de Bolonia (Cádiz) stood out and received the Hispania Nostra Award for Best Practices in Intervention in the Territory or Landscape (2014).
Since 2011, she has lectured in the Master’s Degree in Architecture and Historical Heritage (MARPH) at the University of Seville. She has also participated in various research projects aimed at methodological innovation in protecting historic heritage. Her current research focuses on cultural valuation as a basis for strategic conservation planning and intervention criteria for built heritage.
For more information, see https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6477-9410
Catherine Dewar
Historic England, the UK
Catherine Dewar has worked in the heritage sector in the UK for nearly 30 years, starting in local government on the south coast and midlands before moving back home to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to work for English Heritage. In 2015, she moved to Manchester to take up the post of Regional Director for Historic England’s North West team. In 2022, she stepped away from the regional role for a year, leading a programme to help the organisation and sector partners adapt to a changing climate. Catherine is now back as Regional Director North West, bringing that climate change experience to the team’s work.
Catherine is an urban planner by training and in heart…passionate about making places that not only work but that also bring people joy.
Søren Dyck-Madsen
Energy Forum Denmark and the Danish Energy Authority, Denmark
Søren Dyck-Madsen graduated as a construction engineer from the Danish Technical University (1979). He has worked at a Danish green NGO, the Danish Ecological Council, and the Danish green think tank CONCITO. In these roles, he has been deeply involved in national and European regulations in the construction and energy sectors.
Since 2004, Søren has been especially working on the Danish Building regulation and several European Directives (the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Electricity Directive, and others).
Søren has conducted several studies on buildings’ indoor environment and usability – especially children’s bedrooms, kindergartens and schools. He has worked with economic regulation of the retrofitting of buildings, the climatic effect of the use of building materials in new and retrofitted buildings and the non-energy benefits of retrofitting. He was a member of the Danish National Electricity Regulation Committee.
Søren is currently working with the Danish implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to get it done wisely, focusing on obtaining a Zero Emission Building stock efficiently and cost-effectively. This includes energy efficiency, improving indoor climate, improving technical systems and the buildings’ flexible use of energy from the energy systems such as electricity for heat pumps and district heating, and securing that the energy retrofit of buildings (heritage or not) will not end up doing more harm to the climate by using more new building materials than the energy savings can even up.
Søren has been involved in the global effort to reduce climate change (COP) for 10 years and has contributed to the development of EU directives, partly in collaboration with the European Environmental Bureau and partly as an EU buildings expert.
Søren has also been familiar with the political side of building regulations for 13 years, as a member of Roskilde City Council and the Board of Representatives of a district heating system, an incineration plant, and an electricity company. The synergy between buildings and energy is always at the heart of his concerns.
In addition, Søren has been an assessor for the Danish Energy Authority of applications for support from the Danish National Energy, Development, and Demonstration Fund since 2011, focusing on improving building energy efficiency and integrating buildings with the energy system.
John Edwards
Edwards Hart Consultants, the UK
Chartered Building Surveyor, Chartered Construction Manager and Chartered Environmentalist. A practitioner as a Director of Edwards Hart Consultants and leading on their building consultancy work, which has ranged from the conservation of some of the most important UK heritage sites, such as Somerset House, London, to the retrofit of a Georgian Terrace in Swansea, and all the research and analysis that such work entails. Professor Edwards is also a leading building pathologist and moisture expert, particularly in the area of older buildings, an activity that began in 1981. Accredited and certified as a historic buildings expert by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Part-time educator specialising in everything related to existing buildings. This includes a part-time professorial role at the University of Wales Trinity St David and a Director of Studies and Research position at the Environment Study Centre, which has led to the development of short courses and qualification development for the retrofitting of traditional and historic buildings in the UK. Chair of the Institute for Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) Technical Panel and a Board member of the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA). He has been retrofitting buildings since the 1980s, both domestically and non-domestically, covering both the building fabric and services.
A member of panels producing the RICS Residential Retrofit Standard, as well as BSI’s (British Standards Institution) retrofit standards PAS 2030, PAS 2035, PAS 2038 and the new British Standard for retrofit assessment BS 40104, as well as lead author of BS 7913, the British Standard for building conservation. Professor Edwards is the author of the IHBC retrofit guidance and the CIOB (Chartered Institute of Building) retrofit guidance, and has worked on a range of National Occupational Standards, including Site Management Retrofit. Professor Edwards has previously held senior positions at UK heritage bodies such as English Heritage and Cadw.
Łukasz Konarzewski
Art historian and monument conservator, Poland
Łukasz Konarzewski is an art historian and monument conservator. His public work includes the protection of monuments and their resources, the management and promotion of culture, and the shaping of the surrounding area. Among other things, from 1991 to 1999, he served as the Municipal Conservator of Monuments in Cieszyn, and from 2017 to 2025, as the Conservator of Monuments for the Silesian Voivodeship.
From the late 1990s to 2017, he was involved in the identification, description, management, promotion, and protection of cultural heritage in Cieszyn Silesia. He is the author of one of the first District Monument Protection Programs in Poland in Cieszyn County and the Vademecum of Contemporary Cultural Creators and Artistic Ensembles in Cieszyn County. In this region, he is also the co-founder of the Fr. Leopold Jan Szersznik Award, which is the highest distinction and promotion of the district local government for individuals and institutions that create, promote, and protect cultural heritage on the Polish side of Cieszyn Silesia, as well as in the western part of the Czech Republic, known as Zaolzie.
He is the author of numerous publications on the cultural heritage of Silesia, methodologies for monument protection, and numerous biographical studies.
Steffen Petersen
Aarhus University, Denmark
Steffen Petersen graduated from the Technical University of Denmark with a degree in building science (2005) and has a PhD in computer-aided building design (2011). He has extensive knowledge and experience from 20 years of research, teaching, and professional practice. He has been affiliated with Aarhus University, Denmark, since 2011 and is currently a full professor at the Department of Architectural and Civil Engineering, Section for Building Science.
Steffen Petersen has authored 100+ scientific papers on various building science and design issues. He has also authored two fundamental textbooks on building science (in Danish). Lately, he has been involved in several national research projects on reducing the environmental impact of existing buildings from a life cycle perspective, including the role of listed buildings in the green transition.
Steffen Petersen has initiated, directed, and participated in several small and large national and international research projects. He has also served on many scientific boards and committees and is a frequently invited speaker and journal reviewer. He has received several awards for his work, from the P.O. Fanger Grant (2012) to the Teacher of the Year at Aarhus University (2023).
Angela Ranea Palma
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
Angela Ranea Palma is an industrial engineer with a master’s in environmental management and a master’s in business management, with thirty years of experience in the sustainability sector.
She started her career by setting up her environmental consultancy. After ten years of work, during which she collaborated interestingly with different administrations, she felt the calling of public service and became part of the Regional Government of Andalusia.
Angela Ranea Palma has addressed all areas of sustainability with different roles and responsibilities. Among the most relevant fields, it is worth mentioning circularity of materials and waste management, urban sustainability (mobility, energy efficiency, noise and light pollution), adaptation and mitigation to climate change, air quality, integrated pollution control in large facilities, and the regulatory development inherent to the aforementioned areas. All this is within a transparent process of constant contact with stakeholders, prioritising the consensus-building process.
Three years ago, she joined the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission as a researcher. Her work there is focused on providing the scientific evidence needed to ensure that policy decisions and subsequent regulatory developments are based on a solid foundation. She works for the Directorate of Fair and Sustainable Economy within the Circular Economy and Sustainable Industry Unit, focused on Product Policy Analysis. Her main areas of expertise are the establishment of eco-labels and eco-design requirements. She has set the criteria for green public procurement in the building sector and has been involved in developing the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation Work Plan.
Angela Ranea Palma’s specific skills include her communication abilities, commitment to multidisciplinary work, and global vision for her analyses.
Peter Rickaby
University College London, the UK
Peter Rickaby qualified as an architect at Cambridge University, completed his doctoral research at The Open University, and recently retired to South Africa after a successful forty-year UK career as an energy and sustainability consultant, working for the building and housing industries and specialising in retrofit.
Peter was a member of the technical panel for the UK’s Retrofit for the Future programme and participated extensively in the UK’s Each Home Counts review, for which he was co-lead of the technical standards workstream and a member of the Implementation Board. Subsequently, Peter chaired the British Standards Institute’s Retrofit Standards Task Group and was the Technical Author of the UK’s domestic retrofit standard PAS 2035:2019 and the non-domestic retrofit standard PAS 2038:2021.
Peter was a board director of the EU-funded Centre of Refurbishment Excellence (CoRE), where he helped to develop the UK’s acclaimed Retrofit Coordinator training course. He was subsequently Technical Director of the Retrofit Academy, lead consultant for the development and implementation of Peabody’s award-winning Condensation, Damp and Mould strategy for the Thamesmead estate in south-east London, and a retrofit consultant for Savills’ social housing team, working on processes, specifications and compliance for retrofit projects funded via the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).
Peter is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), where he is working with the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB) on a CPD course about moisture risks in buildings and an online course about condensation, damp and mould (CDM). At UCL, he was a co-investigator of the British Council-funded PROT3CT project with Middle East Technical University (METU), researching heritage-compatible methods for retrofitting traditional himis houses in Turkey. Peter is also a Retrofit Academy Life Fellow and a member of the Academy’s Technical Editorial Team, currently leading the development of the forthcoming short course Understanding Non-Domestic Retrofit.
Sabrina Sommer
Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Sabrina Sommer holds a Master’s in Energy Efficiency Design and a Bachelor of Energy Efficient Planning and Building from the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. She has been a Consultant for Sustainability and Monument Preservation at the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation since 2024 and has taught at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences since 2021.
From 2019 to 2023, she was the founder and freelance planner of “Simply5Design Sommer”.
Therese Sonehag
Swedish National Heritage Board, Sweden
Therese Sonehag is an Architect who specialises in building conservation. She practised in Sweden and Norway from 1995 to 2010 and has since worked for the national government.
Therese manages the Swedish National Heritage Board’s Action Plan for Climate Change Adaptation and Cultural Heritage. She also participates in implementing the EU Directive 2024/1275 on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD) in cooperation with the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning.
Therese’s professional experience also involves work as a reference or member in international research and development projects: for instance, she was recently an expert in the OMC group of the EU-Commission called Strengthening Cultural Heritage from Climate Change (2020-2022), also managing the Sami pilot project of the EU-project Adapt Northern Heritage 2018-2020 as well as currently the ArcticAlpineDecay project (“Deterioration and decay of wooden cultural heritage in Arctic and Alpine environments”, 2021-2025).
Climate change caused by people can also be solved by humans, as is Therese affirmation.
Miguel Torres García
Andalusian Institute for Historic Heritage, Spain
Miguel Torres García is a Technician in the Projects Department of the Andalusian Institute for Historic Heritage (IAPH). Architect (University of Seville), he holds an MSc in Spatial Planning (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Sweden) and a PhD in Human Geography (Manchester University, UK).
As a researcher, he has published several academic texts in the fields of urban studies and built heritage and has further professional experience in architectural design, town, territorial, and built heritage planning, landscape studies and management, development aid, and sustainable urban development strategies.
For more information, see https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9904-4649
Nathalie Vernimme
Flanders Heritage Agency, Belgium
Nathalie Vernimme is an Advisor to the Research Programme at Flanders Heritage Agency, the regional authority for immovable heritage (in Flanders, Belgium).
She obtained a master’s in history (1995) and a bachelor’s in history of art and archaeology (1996) at KULeuven. Miss Vernimme is the author and initiator of several regional studies on heritage sustainability.
She has been an expert member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Energy & Sustainability (ISCES) since 2013, an expert in CEN TC 346 conservation of cultural heritage since 2005, a member of the board of “WTA Nederland-Vlaanderen” (WTA-International Association for Science and Technology of Building Maintenance and the Preservation of Monuments) since 2013 and member of the governing board of JPI Cultural Heritage since 2016.
Miss Vernimme was a member of the organisational board of the International Conference on Energy Efficiency and Comfort of Historic Buildings (EECHB) 2016 in Brussels.
Miss Vernimme was a member of the organisational board of the International Conference on Energy Efficiency and Comfort of Historic Buildings (EECHB) 2016 in Brussels.
Jerzy Zbiegień
Municipal Conservator of Monuments in Kraków, Poland
Jerzy Zbiegień is an architect who graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Krakow University of Technology (Poland) and the University of Lille (France). Since 2005, he has
been the Municipal Conservator of Monuments in Kraków.
Jerzy Zbiegień has carried out several initiatives to protect Krakow’s built heritage. He initiated the buffer zone for the UNESCO World Heritage property in Krakow, which was adopted in 2011. He actively co-developed City Council resolutions regarding the creation of the Old Town Cultural Park (the first in Poland to encompass a historic city centre), Nowa Huta, and the Kazimierz and Stradom districts of Kraków.
He supervised and co-developed the applications of the city of Kraków for recognition by the President of the Republic of Poland of the “Tadeusz Kościuszko Mound Complex” and the
Nowa Huta district. In collaboration with the Office of the Conservator of City Monuments, he oversaw the conservation work of Kraków’s historic buildings, including the Kraków Fortress, cultural facilities, and numerous historic green spaces.
He co-authored the Spatial Development Study, which the Kraków City Council adopted in 2014 and includes a section on cultural heritage and monument protection principles.
Jerzy Zbiegień is also a co-author of dozens of studies on the principles of cultural heritage and monument protection within the framework of the Spatial Development Plans adopted by the City of Kraków since 2005. He is the author of numerous conservation guidelines for buildings and areas listed in the Register of Historic Monuments and the Kraków Municipal Register of Monuments.
Jerzy Zbiegień is a member of the Presidium of the Social Committee for the Restoration of Kraków Monuments and a member of the Kościuszko Mound Committee in Kraków.