Lessons for Resilience

• Within this presentation we will give a brief overview of the challenges we are facing currently and how we are going to address these by training offers and software use.

• A unique behind-the-scenes trip to important historic venues in Malta
• See and hear first-hand how conservation principles emanating from the ICOMOS Articles have been followed to ensure iconic buildings in Malta are being future-proofed for climate change.

• A presentation peering back 900 years of resilience from the 19th-century church itself and its adjacent grounds, particularly The Marylebone Elm.
• The ongoing Changing Life Project undertaken by the Sir Robert McAlpine Special Projects team, which works to give the church a new lease of life in modern-day London.

• Dealing with the partial collapse of Hurst Castle is the most complex and challenging building conservation project currently being undertaken by English Heritage.
• This presentation outlines the events leading up to the collapse, what we’ve done since and our ongoing planning for the future of the site in the light of rising sea levels

Considering warmer climates and over-heating

Professor May Cassar CBE

About 32% of exposed building surfaces are roofs which are a primary source of overheating.  In this presentation, international examples of roofs will illustrate:

• what we can learn from those already experiencing warmer climates;
• traditional architecture and indigenous building knowledge;
• the need to embed knowledge in what we know or have been doing.

• Meeting the needs of the climate emergency – where we are?
• Inadequacies of the mainstream approach & what has to change
• BSI PAS2035 & PAS2038 – how or will they help achieve carbon targets?
• Competency schemes
• Where is true sustainability?

Sadly, there is little doubt that current ‘fabric first’ approaches to retrofit can cause serious harm to buildings and their occupants – whilst their effectiveness in reducing energy and carbon remains uncertain, especially when they are assessed over the longer term. Is this because we have simply been asking the wrong questions? Can a better understanding of the science behind buildings and a return to first principles of energy use be coupled with the long-term holistic view natural to building conservation, to point us towards easier and more effective paradigms for retrofit and new build?

• has COVID created/forced regime change? How have you measured your resilience?
• is sustainability about EPCs but not ESG? Environment Social Governance is where you should be heading.

The balance between the vital need to adapt the fabric and maintain the political function within the buildings in order to sustain their cultural relevance, changing the less possible to prevent the loss of cultural value.