Building Physics and Conservation

The demand for the adaptive reuse of pre-war and post-war landmark buildings and structures is rising, and will continue to rise: particularly with a changing climate, where energy conservation has become a significant influence on refurbishment. There is a widely held belief that upgrading, or reimagined occupancy, must be in practical or commercial conflict with preservation; but in fact, projects informed by a good understanding of the behaviour of the building envelope and the significance (or otherwise) of its components can achieve remarkable results.

Via talks, case studies, and a plenary discussion, this symposium explored building science as a means of reconciling energy conservation with the conservation of our modern architectural heritage. We looked at how deep energy retrofits can be combined with conservation treatments and techniques to develop solutions that enhance rather than destroy the fabric of our built environment, save whole-life energy costs, and produce refurbished buildings that are commercially viable, attractive, and popular with occupants.

Special thanks to our sponsors: Dupont Tyvek and Remmers UK.
 

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Sustainability is a costly add-on, requires too much intervention, is too often bling, cannot cope with building-user modern needs, and has lost its way, and with it the engagement of our political leadership. WRONG – it need not be this. We are at a turning point, at a moment of opportunity to fundamentally rewrite the narrow rules we have imposed on ourselves. ‘Sustainability’ has been around for some 25 years, but too much has become side-tracked into tick-box compliance – alongside the fire escape design. But the world order is changing, not only at the macro-level with new superpowers vying to suck dry our world’s finite natural resource supplies, but also at the micro-level with less prosperity to spend on social infrastructure and our people. Stepping into the limelight comes our forgotten existing building stock. Alongside this is a fundamental re-examination of what and how we can get these buildings to better work for us.

E-mail Chris Twinn (Chris.Twinn@TwinnSustainabilityInnovation.com) to obtain a copy of this presentation.
 

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Revitalising the Southbank
Presenter: Peter Clegg, Founding Partner, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

London’s Southbank has always been a counterpoint to the city across the river, freed from its regulation but also its conservatism. What emerged in Hubert Bennett’s LCC office in the 1960s was a series of buildings that broke all the conventional rules of architecture and urbanism. Our intention with the project was to retain as much of the robust concrete work as we could, and to preserve and enhance the idea of a building that was encouraging and accommodating of art in the broadest sense. The first phase of our work brings attention to repairs and renewals focussing on three areas of change: opening up the Foyer, improvements to the interior of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and ‘letting in the light’ to the most iconic features of the Southbank, the Hayward gallery rooflights.

E-mail Peter Clegg (Peter.Clegg@FCBStudios) to obtain a copy of this presentation.
 

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Protecting and Managing Change to Modern Buildings
Presenter: Emily Gee, London Planning Director, Historic England

Historic England is committed to understanding, assessing and advising on the management of change to the best of our twentieth century buildings. We have a rigorous and progressive approach to assessing modern buildings for listing and it is worth remembering how pioneering the English response to understanding and protecting buildings and  landscape from after war has been. We also take great care to define the extent of special interest to help inform the management of change. There is nothing intrinsically different about Historic England’s advice on managing more recent buildings. We take a significance-based approach, guided by the National Planning Policy Framework. This enables us to judge where change can be best accommodated so that the significance of the building is reinforced rather than diminished.

E-mail Emily Gee (Emily.Gee@HistoricEngland.org.uk) to obtain a copy of this presentation.
 

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In Praise of the Ordinary
Presenter: Robin Nicholson, Senior Partner, Cullinan Studio

The case for making much better use of the buildings that we already have needs to include ‘the ordinary’ as well as ‘the special’ but we need to understand their cultural meaning as well as the building physics. The Edge explored some of these issues at a conference in Venice last October and in London in January. As a practice, Cullinan Studio have a portfolio of projects where existing buildings have been pruned in order to stimulate the new growth but architects are now designing buildings for which it is difficult to imagine futures. There is a growing understanding of how to accomplish this through programmes like Retrofit for the Future and the work of the National Trust and Historic England but this new knowledge seldom finds its way into the core curriculum for architects and engineers. These projects are used to explore the barriers to Sustainable Refurbishment, and propose some ways forward.

E-mail Robin Nicholson (robin.nicholson@cullinanstudio.com) to obtain a copy of this presentation.
 

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Facade Renewal: Addressing Stone Cladding
Presenter: Michael Scheffler, Principal and Director of Knowledge Sharing, WJE

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Repairs and upgrades to building enclosure systems are a key part of the adaptive reuse of existing facilities. In order to solve enclosure performance issues, thorough investigation of the current conditions is critical to ensuring that the renovation design includes adequate steps to address any known or discovered deficiencies.  In addition, adaptive reuse by its nature includes changing many factors that influence building enclosure performance.  If careful analysis of these changes is not included as part of the design process, unintended problems can occur that are detrimental to the durability, longevity, and sustainability of the refurbished project. This presentation will give an overview of some of the key investigative and analytical approaches and tools that can be used to help solve existing enclosure related problems and avoid unintentional negative impacts that can result from design changes to older building assemblies.

E-mail Justin Boone (JBoone@wje.com) to obtain a copy of this presentation.
 

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Soft Landings: Planning for Performance in Use
Presenter: Tamsin Tweddell, Senior Partner, Max Fordham

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