Building on the Past: understanding contested heritage futures through a study of renovation and retrofit of historic buildings

Buildings change in response to various social processes and emerge through the different practices and understandings of people who use, inhabit and work on them. Over time structures acquire a range of meanings as authentic embodiments of the past, including values attached to original fabric, period features, and the patina of worn and weathered materials. Such understandings are associated with cultural, social and economic values that lend support to the importance of conserving and caring for old buildings. However these ideas have the potential to conflict with an increasing emphasis on energy-efficient renovation, entailing a radical transformation of the built environment in response to fears about climate change. Concretely, a range of measures including the installation of micro-generation technologies, insulation, new windows and the adoption of 'smart' technologies, all have the potential to improve the energy performance of older buildings, but also to compromise the historic value of existing structures.

This project examines how ideas about heritage conservation, a set of beliefs about the value of continuity and tradition, exist in relation to ideas about the need for environmentally motivated changes to a range of historic buildings. The project aims to understand the cultural meanings and social dynamics through which heritage and energy futures are constructed, through a study of the attitudes, values and beliefs of a range of building professionals and clients involved in renovation and retrofit. The project uses a mixture of methods, including interviewing and sustained detailed observation in relation to case-study buildings, combined with analysis of the broader discourses and cultural understandings that inform the positions of the professionals and clients involved. The findings will help understand how perceived conflicts between historic value and energy efficiency can be managed and will be used to shape policy and practice in an important but under-researched area.

The aim of societal impact is integral to the project. Dialogue and dissemination activities with non-academic partnerships will leverage wider impact, including through targeted publications (see Pathways to Impact and Case for Support). Non-academic project partners, including representatives of leading public and private sector organisations in the areas of building conservation and energy, have pledged £21,150 as in-kind contributions to the project (this figure excludes non-quantified contributions). This gives an indication of the wider potential of the societal and economic benefit of this research.

The main project beneficiaries will be:

1) Conservation policy makers at national and international levels, who will be able to use the research to fill an important and pressing need for evidence-based policy in relation to sustainable heritage issues (see HS supporting statement). This will feed into ongoing policy reviews at Historic Scotland. Longer term wider impact will be achieved through activities identified via dialogue with stakeholders at the final project seminar.
2) Conservation professionals who will benefit from improved understanding of the perspectives of building professionals and clients on heritage and energy (see supporting statements by Historic Scotland, Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance and the Institute for Historic Building Conservation). Project partners will benefit from knowledge gained via ongoing dialogue integral to the project, while wider benefits will be achieved through dissemination activities they have promised as in-kind contributions.
3) Building professionals dealing with building renovation, including architects (see supporting statement by Institute for Historic Building Conservation, Millar Howard Workshop and the Scottish Civic Trust) and planners, who will benefit from improved understanding of attitudes to heritage and energy conservation among clients and the wider nexus of people involved in modifications to historic buildings.
4) Local Authorities who have to manage policies and programmes with conflicting aims and objectives in relation to heritage and energy conservation will benefit from improved evidence to use in decision making. Durham County Council, a project partner, have identified an absence of research on which to base their own policy and practice and have pointed to wider issues relating to the management of historic buildings by Local Authorities. Durham County Council will benefit directly through improved understanding as a result of dialogue and dissemination of research findings. Other Local Authorities, both nationally and internationally, will benefit from dissemination via Durham County Council and other project publications.
5) Academic researchers in a range of disciplines will benefit from improved understanding of an area of important and emergent area of interest (see Academic Beneficiaries).
6) The PI will benefit from research and career development to consolidate existing interests as a research leader in this field. This will enable him to benefit other researchers in the future through contributions to research, mentoring, teaching and support of other academics and students.
7) The broader public will benefit in the longer-term via interventions to the built environment that effectively manage the tensions between heritage and energy conservation on the basis of improved understandings.