Responsible retrofit of traditional buildings

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Posted on: 4 October 2012
By: mackene
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Filed under: News

This report looks into key aspects of the responsible retrofit of traditional buildings on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). This work was undertaken by the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA) which represents most of the main historic building groups in the UK as well as mainstream construction-related organisations. The work was carried out following concerns raised with regard to the application of certain retrofit measures, including those incorporated into the Green Deal, in respect of the UK’s traditional building stock.

The report begins by identifying existing national and international research and guidance work of relevance to the subject of the retrofitting of traditional buildings and recognises significant gaps in this knowledge base. It also considers a series of diverse documents that influence retrofitting practices grouped under the term Implicit Guidance and reveals short comings in these texts and their methods. A discussion then follows which draws out the consequences of this lack of good quality research and guidance in all its forms with regard to a variety of pertinent issues related to energy saving refurbishment and the performance and value of traditional buildings. The report concludes with a ‘Way Forward’ and makes suggestions as to how uncertainties within this field can be managed in order to ensure that traditional buildings can contribute to significantly reducing energy demand in the UK without placing these buildings or their occupants at undue risk. Please note this report contains an extensive bibliography.

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