Sustainable Concepts for Churches and Monasteries

Sustainable Concepts for Churches and Monasteries

Who I Am and how I Look at Religious Heritage

L’église Saint Pierre in d’Aulnay in Charente-Maritime France – the church were my French father-in-law was baptized

My name is Birgit Dulski, and I work as a sustainability advisor at NIBE (Dutch Institute for Building Biology and Ecology) and as a researcher at Nyenrode Business University. Despite living in the Netherlands for many years, I am passionate about following projects and initiatives in other European countries. I believe that looking beyond borders often leads to inspiring insights, a belief that may stem from my lifestyle: Born and raised in Berlin, I studied in the Netherlands and have a French partner. Currently, we split our time between Brussels, Berlin, and the Netherlands. My grown-up children live in Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In our family, we love learning from each other’s experiences in different countries.

My professional education as an architect, my current work, and my life across different countries shape my perspective on buildings. I am aware that “it can be done differently.” The construction and use of buildings vary across countries, making situations less obvious and keeping me curious. I recognize how much we can learn from experiences in different contexts. At NIBE, I collaborate with colleagues on sustainable concepts for social real estate, including religious heritage. In recent years, we have developed sustainable concepts for 16 churches, 4 monasteries, and the home of the only Dutch Pope in history

For many people churches and monasteries are special places, and so they are for me. During holidays, I often visit churches to experience moments of peace, light a candle for my deceased parents, see where my partner spent his youth, or attend concerts and exhibitions. 

Why I Think We Need Sustainable Concepts for Religious Heritage

Dominicuskerk in Amsterdam, The Netherlands – where even during the covid-pandemic concerts were offered for the neighbourhood

I see several reasons why my colleagues and I are increasingly asked to develop sustainable concepts for churches and monasteries. High energy bills place enormous financial pressure on churches, while there are also the demands and wishes to reach comfortable temperatures during winter for church services and secondary functions. In monasteries, affordable energy bills and acceptable comfort levels are required for cultural or residential purposes, sometimes for vulnerable groups.

I also see that more and more communities involved in maintaining religious heritage buildings feel a social responsibility to reduce their contribution to climate change by lowering their CO2 emissions. Therefore, sustainability concepts always include a focus on ways to reduce energy consumption and use opportunities for sustainable energy generation. However, sustainability is not only about energy. It also involves preserving heritage values and finding new functions that fit the building and its surroundings. Churches and monasteries have a long tradition of making social contributions to local communities, such as hosting food banks and other charity activities and serving as meeting places for the neighbourhood. By integrating these considerations, we aim to develop sustainable concepts that not only address energy efficiency but also enhance the social and cultural roles of the religious buildings.

 

 

Sustainability in Dutch Churches: Challenges and Opportunities

Sustainable concepts for churches and monasteries have special challenges which in many aspects differ from other heritage buildings. Although every church and every monastery is different and requires a customized approach, there are also a number of common situations that offer challenges and opportunities. Here some challenges and opportunities for churches:

Climate and Heating

  • Winter Conditions: Winters in the Netherlands are wet and cold, with average temperatures of 3-4 degrees Celsius in December and January. Visitors keep their winter coats on during church services, but even then some heating is desirable and present in most Dutch churches.
  • Large Spaces: Church buildings often have large volumes that need to be heated.
  • Uninsulated Walls: Many churches in The Netherlands have solid brick exterior walls that retain heat but do not insulate well.
  • Stained Glass Windows: These beautiful windows are often fitted with secondary external glazing for protection, but this usually does not contribute significantly to energy savings.
  • Uninsulated Roofs: Churches often have uninsulated roofs with vaults underneath. Insulating the vault can sometimes be beneficial, but often it is not.

Usage and Heating

  • Irregular Use: Churches are typically used and heated for services on Sundays, with no or less use and lower base temperatures during the week. This requires a fast warm-up time, which is demanding for the heating systems and may affect the relative humidity, impacting the organ (if present) and wooden interiors.
  • Air Heating: Air heating is often chosen, raising questions about where and how the heat is distributed. Blowing warm air too quickly and at high temperatures can cause the warm air to rise and stay under the roof or vault, away from the people.

Adaptations 

  • Compartmentalization: In some cases, it makes sense to divide the large hall, depending on its use.
  • Draft Portals: Installing a draft portal can be useful, depending on the situation.
  • Winter Services: With rising energy costs, more religious communities are combining services or using only parts of the church. Local heating solutions, such as heated cushions or infrared panels, are also used.
  • Lighting: Energy reductions can also be achieved through lighting concepts, such as mood lighting and LED systems.

Secondary Use and Repurposing

  • Programming: When secondary use occurs in the church hall, scheduling activities on Mondays is preferable, as the temperature has not yet fully dropped.
  • Appropriate Functions: When repurposing, a public function is often sought to maintain the building as a meeting place and preserve its heritage value. Cultural functions are preferred, but other public uses, such as bookstores or restaurants, are also suitable.

Volunteers

  • Active Communities: Many church communities have active groups of volunteers who are willing and able to carry out various sustainable interventions.

Sustainability in Dutch Monasteries: Challenges and Opportunities

Here I give an overview of challenges and opportunies for monasteries:

Accessibility and Function

  • Traditional Accessibility: Monasteries are traditionally less accessible to the public, with a more closed character and primarily a residential function, often combined with a chapel. Today, many monasteries in The Netherlands have got new functions. Residential communities, such as co-housing or nurseries, are common, while parts of the monastery are often accessible to the public during cultural or social events in the chapel.
  • Social Functions: Historically and currently, monasteries often serve social functions, such as in education or healthcare. When looking for a suitable new function it may be possible to continue this tradition.

Usage and Modern Requirements

  • Irregular Use: Similar to churches, some parts of monasteries experience irregular use, requiring adaptable installation concepts. Balancing residential and public functions can be challenging, especially when meeting modern requirements like fire safety and wheelchair accessibility.
  • Insulation and Comfort: Monasteries often have brick walls without insulation, stained glass windows, and vaulted ceilings in chapels. In the original residential areas, corridors lead to smaller rooms, raising questions about which spaces should be comfortable. Is it acceptable to wear a coat in the corridor and on the stairs during winter? How can we compartmentalize effectively?

Innovative Solutions

  • Inner Courtyards: Some monasteries have inner courtyards that could be covered to create additional space for cultural events and integrate into the energy concept. For others it is valuable to keep the inner courtyard as a quiet and protected outdoor space.
  • Repetition and Affordability: The repetitive architectural elements, such as identical windows, offer opportunities for cost-effective solutions.
  • Solar Panels: Monasteries often have large roof surfaces that are not visible from public spaces, making them suitable for solar panel installations.

By addressing these challenges and opportunities, churches and monasteries in the Netherlands can become more sustainable while preserving their historical and cultural value. Together with my colleagues I develop scenarios that build on each other, ensuring that not everything has to be done at once. Some churches and monasteries have higher ambitions than others. Sometimes the religious function can be maintained (with or without secondary functions), while in other cases, finding a new function is unavoidable. Depending on the situation, solar panels and/or heat pumps may be possible, or a heating network might be available. In some cases, it is possible to insulate the walls. The focus can also be on sustainable behaviour, such as implementing a “winter church” concept, compartmentalization, maintaining lower temperatures, or using heated cushions. A key consideration is whether interventions can be reversible. This ensures that future generations can remove the interventions without damage and implement new solutions according to their own insights.

Some Real-World Examples

I invite you to watch the video below, where you will see several churches and monasteries in the Netherlands for which my colleagues and I have developed sustainable concepts. You will recognize many of the situations described above, but sustainable interventions are often not visible. For example, if you look carefully, you might see grilles through which warm air is blown into the church hall, but you won’t see the speed or temperature of the air. As a visitor, you won’t see whether the church is connected to a heating network or has heat pumps. You also won’t see if a vault is insulated on the upper side. Solar panels are often placed in a way that they are not visible from public spaces. However, you will see high church halls with impressive vaults, beautiful stained glass windows (sometimes protected by external glazing), organs, historic woodwork, and lots of brick. You will also see monastery buildings with many repeating elements and rooms with very different characters. You will notice roofs that are not visible from the street and on which many installations are placed, most of them reversibly.

Perhaps after reading this article, you will take our sustainability perspective with you on your next visit to a church or monastery in your own living environment or while on holiday. You might notice things you hadn’t seen before. If you would like to share your ideas with me, I would love to hear them! As I mentioned above: I remain curious and eager to learn from others.

By Birgit Dulski, Senior Consultant Sustainable Heritage Buildings

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