Kevin McCloud is a Big Hit at TGR/RIBA Conference
Kevin McCloud was a big hit in his ‘breakout session’ at yesterday’s Green Register/RIBA SW conference ‘Towards a Green Heritage’ that took place at Swindon STEAM museum.
The challenge of combining sustainability and conservation issues were thoroughly debated at the conference with input from conservation officers, architects and engineers. Some questioned the need to debate this issue when there are ‘only’ 380,000 historic buildings in the UK - perhaps we should be concentrating on the many thousands of non-historic buildings that are below current standards of sustainability.
Others wanted to discuss what should be tackled first and what makes most carbon sense. The contrast between the photovoltaic panels at the nearby Heelis project costing £450,000 and only contributing 10-15% of the building’s electrical needs and Kevin McCloud’s modest but effective eco-refurb of a terraced house in Manchester reducing carbon emissions by over 30% but only costing just over £2,000 could not have been sharper.
However, it is clear that unless we conserve the environment first our historic buildings will be (perfectly preserved) under water due to rising sea levels.
Paul King, UK-GBC Chief Executive described the conference as: “A thoroughly enjoyable event, with lots of good natured but challenging views about how we can reconcile the sometimes competing demands of sustainability and the conservation of heritage buildings. How to make loft insulation glamourous, sexy refurb, and a preference for passive measures over high-tech eco-bling, were just some of the hotly debated topics, to lift our spirits on a cold November day in a train shed in Swindon.”
His session on the Great British Refurb was fully booked, and provoked a lively debate. Photo above from left to right: Paul King UK-GBC Chief Executive, Kevin McCloud, Lucy Pedler TGR Director, and Jon Watkins Head of RIBA SW.
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