The future of Sterkenburg

Sterkenburg castle lies 20 km outside the city of Utrecht and is one of the few privately-managed estates left in the country. Dating back to the mid-1200s, the van Helsdingen family, its current owners, care for the estate, respecting its original function as a private household. The family is no stranger to the challenge faced by many other owners of heritage-listed buildings in the Netherlands - high maintenance costs and limited capacity for revenue creation.

How do we turn cultural heritage sites back into valued properties in today’s fast-changing society?

To help resolve this, Except developed an approach to design roadmaps and tackle complexity. In February 2019, our team gathered with the estate owners and co-created a comprehensive program that sets a new future for the castle.

The roadmap consists of short and long-term approaches to energy consumption, user experience, and society. The outcomes reduce operational costs, enhance the business model, and reconnect the castle with broader societal issues via an engaging event program, the "Club of Sterkenburg." The club nurtures national and international policy-making toward bolstering cultural heritage and sustainability and engaging both business and government in achieving it.

The short-term roadmap saves on operational costs through significant improvements in energy usage, including lighting, appliances, heating, and hot water. "The predicted reduction of electricity consumption ensures a complete return of investment in less than a year," says Jacob Verhaart, Head of Science at Except. Even better, the family can implement all these short-term measures themselves.

The business model capitalizes on the unexpressed potentials of the estate and sets a new paradigm for the future of listed heritage buildings in the Netherlands and across the globe.