Climate Change and Historic Buildings: A Call for Sustainable Solutions

‘Amidst climate change, historic buildings emerge as sustainable icons, calling us back to traditional materials and conservation skills for enduring impact’ so said someone responding to a climate change and historic buildings data survey conducted by The University of York.

We attended the SPAB-STBA Conference 2024 a couple of days ago, the theme was New Ideas for Old Buildings: Education, Application & Innovation. A big topic running through the conference was how to adapt to climate change and the challenges it is bringing.

A variety of viewpoints

There were great presentations and case studies by loads of experts in their fields, ranging from the National Trust, to various architectural practices and their approach to old buildings.

Among the speakers were representatives from the Welsh School of Architecture, Historic England, The University of York, Cheribim, conservation and traditional building craftspersons and specialist heritage consultants.

Great to see that a huge swathe of interwar social housing estates are hopefully going to be retrofitted at scale. I just hope the local authorities don’t value engineer and rip out the bio-based materials and replace with fossil fuel manufactured alternatives. This is a project by the Welsh School of Architecture.

Found out about Gramitherm, an insulation product made from grass. Not checked it out yet but sounds interesting.

New approaches to old buildings

We were very impressed with the presentation by Tonkin Liu and their work at York Minster for the new Heritage Quad and Technology Hub buildings, on site now. These buildings respond to nature and are aimed at teaching and passing on knowledge of ancient crafts and building techniques. If you haven’t seen these check them out on the web.

In some ways I didn’t want to go as I have a load of work to continue with, but on reflection I’m glad I did go as I came away feeling inspired, learnt a load of new practical stuff that will be useful. I also felt that the work I’m doing and my approach is correct and matters, also good to meet like minded people.

Climate change and historic buildings: A committed few

There are loads of challenges to work through with buildings and climate change but I think there is hope and a committed band of people working to reduce the impacts.

The event was held in York, in a really old building called the Hospitium, part of an old monastery, built about 700 years ago. Apparently the original building may have been guest accommodation, as a place for visitors to stay. It’s still standing strong and being used to this day, built from locally sourced bio-based materials. 🙂

SPAB = The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
STBA = Sustainable Traditional Building Alliance