At the end of October, Lukas Dahlström defended his doctoral thesis at Uppsala University. The public defence took place at the Almedalen Library, Campus Gotland, with Professor Ursula Eicker from Concordia University in Montréal as the opponent. The supervisors were Professor Joakim Widén and Researcher Fatemeh Johari from the Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, and Professor Tor Broström from the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Division of Conservation. Lukas’s research was part of GRASS, Uppsala University’s graduate school in sustainable development, which supports interdisciplinary research projects.

The thesis, entitled “Building Sustainability in Regional Energy Transition: Large-Scale Energy Demand Modelling Considering Socio-Economic Factors and Heritage Values”, explores how energy use in the building sector can be reduced while preserving cultural heritage values. By developing a method based on Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) - a framework for large-scale simulation of building energy demand - Dahlström combined open-access data, energy performance certificates, and socio-economic information to identify representative building archetypes.

The model was applied both to Gotland and to the historic district of Södermalm in Stockholm. The results show that EU energy efficiency targets can be achieved even for heritage buildings, without compromising their cultural value. The research highlights how data-driven energy modelling can support the balance between efficiency and preservation - a crucial challenge in the regional energy transition.

Read the thesis in DiVA