**6. Conclusions**

The present paper proposes a methodology to categorize the historic building stock using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. For the categorization, building features were analyzed on the settlement and building level. The analysis conducted allows highlighting building features that are influenced by climate and local culture, which contributes to the state of knowledge of the historic building stock. This methodology could be applied to di fferent scales of historic building stock with the aim of understanding the correlation between building categories and climate.

The application of this methodology in South Tyrol shows the process in which a complex historic building stock is systematized. In addition to that, some correlations between building categories and local climate were discovered. From climate Zone I to III, the temperature decreases, and the precipitation increases as the altitude increases; the settlements of historic buildings tend to be sparser, with lower density; historic buildings tend to have smaller volumes, a lower window-to-wall ratio, less thermal mass, and di fferent agriculture functions. These results not only show that settlements are more concentrated in regions with a climate that is ideal for agriculture, but also that they adapt to the climate in some ways. According to the analysis of the development of building features, climate is an important factor but not the only decisive one.

Considering future climate change, which could cause severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts on historic buildings, it is necessary to study the performance of historic buildings to ensure their energy e fficiency and conservation. According to the analysis of building features in three climate zones, it is necessary to use di fferent archetypes to represent the typical buildings. Moreover, there is a need to carry out research to understand the capability of the climate-responsive features in future climate scenarios, as well as exploring the possible further risks and adaptation strategies.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.T. and D.H.-A.; methodology, L.H. and D.H.-A.; data collection and analysis, L.H.; supervision, A.T. and C.D.P.; writing-original draft preparation, L.H.; writing-review and editing, D.H.-A., C.D.P. and A.T.

**Funding:** This research was funded by Thematic Scholarship "Energy Retrofit of Historic Buildings", gran<sup>t</sup> number 32b-T4 and The APC was funded by Politecnico di Milano.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
