Adapting traditional buildings to current habitability and thermal comfort standards is essential to ensuring that they continue to be used as residential spaces. However, this adaptation requires careful consideration, reconciling energy efficiency improvements with their constructive characteristics and associated heritage values. In this regard, traditional buildings constructed with half-timbered walls display specific characteristics which considerably influence interventions related to energy retrofitting. These include the presence of constructive discontinuities between the timber frame and infill, as well as the existence of overhangs, porticoes, and galleries which complicate the installation of external insulation. To contribute to technical knowledge and promote compatible energy retrofitting, a systematic analysis using structured study fiches was conducted on 758 half-timbered walls with earth infill documented in Spain. It first provides an overview of the construction features that impact energy retrofitting actions and the related dynamics observed in some intervened buildings. Subsequently, it offers a series of reflections on the compatibility of these dynamics with the conservation of heritage values and some technical recommendations for the installation of thermal insulation depending on geometric, material, and other constructive characteristics, improving the thermal transmittance of certain types of infill in cases where substitution is justified, and reducing thermal bridges at the interface between the timber frame and the infill. This research aims to contribute to the development of technical knowledge about a traditional constructive technique at risk, offering solutions for its conservation while respecting and adapting to contemporary requirements.
Escobar et al. (Wed,) studied this question.