Sustainable Vernacular Architecture: The Renovation of a Traditional House on Stara Planina Mountain in Serbia

In the last few years, Stara planina (the Balkan Mountains) and its surroundings have been improving their tourist offer. The area is protected by law, as a nature park, and the construction of new buildings requires a complex administrative procedure. Renovation of country houses is part of the usual construction procedures and is easier to carry out. Typical renovation solutions involve application of industrial materials with significant impact on the environment from the process of their production and further on. The traditional houses found in many mountains across Serbia and the Balkans are constructed using natural materials. Hence, this paper tackles the problem of renovating such dwellings by application of natural materials to improve their usability and reduce their energy and carbon footprint. An analysis is performed on a case study model of a typical house from Stara planina. The advantages of using natural materials in the process of renovating a traditional house are analysed. By using TRNSYS software, the total amount of energy demands of the house during a typical meteorological year with four scenarios (current state, walls isolated with sheep and hemp wool panels and EPS) was simulated. These materials were further analysed for their environmental impact by means of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). In the synthesis of the research, the best results were brought into connection with the sustainable development of the architectural heritage. The results prove that natural products provide the necessary thermal comfort and have a significantly more positive impact on the environment than artificial materials. Based on this study, recommendations were created for the sustainable renovation of vernacular architecture in Serbia. The goal of the paper is to create scientific and professional evidence that local and natural materials must be used to reduce the impact of climate change and that such sustainable renovation is in accordance with modern architectural design and thermal comfort. The goal is also to fill the gap in renovation methods in Serbia, according to the principles of sustainable design.