• AMS Institute

• Door studenten

• Energie,
• Bouwen & Wonen

Exploring strategies for reducing the natural gas de- mand in the historic non-residential buildings in the city center of Amsterdam

MADE Student Project

Amsterdam aims to become a natural gas free city by 2040, the Transition Vi- sion Heat is created to guide this process. However, most neighborhoods in the city center are categorized in this transition document as "sustainable gas" neighborhoods, where the aim is to reduce 70 % of the natural gas demand, and supply the remaining heat demand with “green” hydrogen or bio gas. Furthermore, most research on reducing natural gas demands is focused on dwellings, and non-residential buildings are grouped together as ‘utility’. The city center of Ams- terdam consist of more than half of mixed-use and non-residential buildings, and Fifty-four percent of the city center’s natural gas demand comes from businesses and institutions.

Archetyping for energy modeling is typically done for residential buildings, this research creates archetypes for non-residential and mixed-use historic buildings to calculate potential natural gas reduction. The research question is as follows: “Which natural gas reducing strategies can be created for the non-residential his- toric buildings in the city center of Amsterdam through an archetypical approach?”

This research simulate retrofitting scenarios’ in buildings considering their cultural- historical value though a bottom-up approach, starting from retrofitting scenarios of representative archetypes on a building level and transposing this to a neigh- bourhood level and the city center district. The protection of the value of historic buildings brings challenges to retrofitting, especially in monuments, but can in contrast offers a perspective that cultural value can shift the exclusive focus on the present and future needs of sustainable development to a perspective that includes the role of past needs and developments.

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