Valuation of medieval churches; taking account of laypersons’ views

In this paper we investigate laypersons’ valuation of historic buildings, their experiences of thermal comfort in those buildings and contrast this with their views on the appropriateness of energy efficiency measures. This paper presents four case studies of medieval churches in Groningen, Netherlands. Valuation studies is used to investigate the values that are attached to historic buildings by various stakeholders. We apply the ‘heritage as a spatial vector’ approach, to position heritage in relation to developments in society and the landscape. Our theoretical contribution lies in the combination of heritage approaches and valuation studies. We conclude that for a more balanced assessment of historic buildings, laypersons’ valuations should be further integrated in heritage studies.