Chris Scott of Muse suggested that everyone should be “100% behind early engagement” and he knows it works first hand.
He cited Your New Town Hall, a project delivered by Muse and Morgan Sindall Construction that included the refurbishment of a Grade II listed building.
Chris said the early engagement with all key stakeholders and the community was critical to the project’s success, and this began long before we started the design.
“The client was really clear that their carbon objectives were important, as were their running costs so the priorities of the project were clear from the start.”
The result is a comprehensive refurbishment of a beautiful Grade Two listed building that now has a BREEAM EXCELLENT certificate, a wonderful result. In order to achieve the project objectives at the time, we had to compromise on capital cost, but in the long run this was outweighed by the importance of preservation, reducing carbon emissions and operational costs.”
Tim Clement suggested that universities and other institutions would be greatly helped by a more consistent approach from the planning authorities as to whether retrofit developments will be approved. He thinks it needs to be distilled into a simple but essential checklist:
Ultimately, there are few cities in the UK where the Net Zero agenda rubs up against heritage concerns more than Oxford, and in order for the city to hit Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040, there will have to be compromise.
The fact we’re all having these conversations is a reason to be optimistic. We now have to join the dots. We know the technology is there, it’s about getting the right people together.”
Nick Brown added that buildings have only survived this long because they have flexed and changed over time, and that we need to keep doing so if they are going to stay “relevant to us today.”
Charlotte Robinson agreed: “When these buildings were designed hundreds of years ago they were done so in a specific way for a specific reason.
User experience and demands have changed over time, so we’re now “making buildings serve a purpose” that they weren’t intended for – so the industry must adapt, and there will have to be a balance struck and trade-offs made for these buildings to continue to stand the test of time.”
When we started this debate, I thought that every single bit of heritage fabric had to be preserved, but having listened and learned from the experts I now understand it’s not about every single window being preserved in exactly the same format, but it’s about taking a pragmatic and sensitive view and flexing as best we can.”
