Abstract

Speakers:

Oliver Smith, Director, 5th Studio

Kayla Friedman, Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge

Further Speakers TBC

Abstract:

On 7 February, the Secretary of State – through the National Planning Casework Unit – endorsed 5th Studio proposals for the sustainable refurbishment of the Grade I Listed buildings at New Court, Trinity College, Cambridge. This landmark consent represents the end of three years of close work with the heritage agencies that have arrived at an integrated package of passive and active measures that reduce the energy use of the existing building by c.75% and the carbon emissions by 88%. The proposals involve thermal upgrade of the existing fabric (insulated wall lining and double-glazing in the existing windows) that had previously been thought unachievable – or unacceptable – without significant risk to either the character or the fabrci of the historic building. More active measures include the integration of MVHR system and PV and GSHP installations. In a brief presentation, Oliver Smith will outline the 5th Studio methodology for working with the heritage policies and agencies, the process of monitoring, modelling and analysis that allowed the risks to be identified and mitigated.

Kayla Friedman will be presenting the challenges and opportunities of an energy efficient retrofit project of a Grade II listed building in Westminster being undertaken by Grosvenor. The building has been designed to reach an 80% carbon emissions saving. However, some of these improvements have implications for heritage features. The presentation will include the brief and the design approach, some of the key energy saving elements of the proposal, and the main planning objections based around heritage. The project highlights some fundamental conflicts about what various actors in the industry believe conservation is about, and what we should be doing about the energy efficiency of our older building stock.

Oliver Smith, 5th Studio

Oliver Smith is one of the directors of 5th Studio and combines practice with studio teaching at the University of Cambridge School of Architecture – focussing on attitudes to materiality and construction. He has extended this research through the practice’s work in developing a critical approach to sustainable construction and in particular to adaptation of existing fabric.

Kayla Friedman, University of Cambridge

Kayla Friedman (BSc MArch (Dist) MUD (Dist) AIA ) is a licensed New York State Architect. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Virginia. Kayla joined the Centre in January 2010 as part of the EPSRC and Grosvenor funded Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment Research Programme