A State-of-Art Review of Retrofit Interventions in Low-Emission School Buildings Located in Cool-Temperate Climate

The refurbishment of school buildings offers the opportunity to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, which positively influences the reduction of environmental impact. It is also important to remember to maintain or enhance the comfort of the users of such buildings. This paper presents a systematic review of the state of the art on current trends and low-carbon technical, operational and behavioural methods used in the refurbishment of school buildings in cool temperate climates. This subject matter is positioned at the interface of architecture and environmental engineering. This study identifies the most commonly used active and passive refurbishment methods, as well as the research gaps and problems of applied solutions, and demonstrates the most likely and cost-effective optimisation directions in existing schools.