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

建筑物随着各种社会进程而变化，并通过使用、居住和工作的人们的不同实践和理解而出现。随着时间的推移，结构获得了一系列的意义，作为过去的真实体现，包括附加到原始织物，时期特征，以及磨损和风化材料的铜绿的价值。这种理解与文化、社会和经济价值观有关，这些价值观支持保护和照顾旧建筑的重要性。然而，这些想法有可能与日益强调节能改造相冲突，从而导致建筑环境发生根本性转变，以应对对气候变化的担忧。具体而言，包括安装微发电技术、隔热、新窗户和采用“智能”技术在内的一系列措施都有可能改善旧建筑的能源性能，但也会损害现有建筑的历史价值。该项目探讨了遗产保护的想法，一套关于连续性和传统价值的信念，存在与关于需要对一系列历史建筑进行环保改造的想法有关的问题。该项目旨在通过研究参与翻新和改造的一系列建筑专业人士和客户的态度，价值观和信仰，了解文化意义和社会动态，从而构建遗产和能源未来。该项目采用了多种方法，包括访谈和持续详细观察案例研究建筑，结合分析更广泛的话语和文化理解，为所涉专业人员和客户的立场提供信息。研究结果将有助于了解如何管理历史价值和能源效率之间的冲突，并将用于在一个重要但研究不足的领域制定政策和实践。

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.