Nottingham Council House Credit: iStock. com/Leonid Andronov
CIBSE is forming a new committee dedicated to retrofit and building services interventions in heritage buildings.
A series of webinars is planned as part of the launch of the Retrofit in Heritage group, with the first in September. It will feature an introduction by Julie Godefroy, CIBSE head of sustainability, outlining planned updates to the CIBSE Climate Action Plan, while other speakers will give insights into the first steps to be taken in the retrofit of heritage buildings.
The Retrofit in Heritage committee links to ongoing work that CIBSE is doing around climate change mitigation and adaptation, and linking it to building performance, and will sit alongside the existing CIBSE Heritage Group, which focuses on building services of heritage interest.
It is intended to be a forum for discussion, and plans to hold monthly knowledge-sharing activities, with guest speakers. Its mission is to support the built environment industry in the retrofit of buildings of special architectural and historical interest, working towards the carbon-agenda targets of the wider industry, while avoiding maladaptation.
The committee says it aims to do this by ‘creating an open environment for knowledge sharing across the industry, and providing information, guidance and leadership about new developments, innovation, policy and legislation relating to retrofit in the heritage sector’.
The proposed definition of ‘retrofit’ is ‘the upgrading of a building to enable it to respond to the imperative of climate change, avoiding maladaptation’. This is adapted from Marion Baeli’s Residential retrofit: 20 case studies (RIBA Publishing, London 2013).
- You can find out more about the CIBSE Heritage Group here If you would like to enquire about joining the committee, please contact groups@cibse.org