Zero Carbon Ready? How the housing sector must respond to COP26
AoU conference re-use, retrofit, and reconfigured neighbourhoods
Following on from the 2019 UNECE Glasgow Conference on City Living and events in 2020, The Academy of Urbanism continued its housing series with a conference in October 2021 exploring reuse as a means to deliver net zero homes and the wider role that reconfigured neighbourhoods and community-owned social housing can play towards 2050 carbon goals.
But as countries ramp up their commitments – indeed the UK and Ireland are now both on a legally-binding path to becoming net zero by 2050 – the question is how we turn abstract agreements into practice, and particularly in the energy-thirsty residential housing market.
While new housing is being reformed through policies such as the Future Homes Standard in the UK and Nearly Zero Energy Buildings across the EU, the vast majority of buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built – estimated at 80 per cent in UK. Therefore, if net zero ambitions and climate protection are to be realised, existing homes and places have a significant role to play.
Session 1: The Zero Carbon challenge for towns and cities
Chaired by Professor Sadie Morgan OBE, Director, dRMM. Chair, Quality of Life Foundation
A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives
Ciaran Cuffe MEP, Member of the European Parliament for Green Party and Rapporteur for A Renovation Wave for Europe
Retofirst – The Architects’ Journal Campaign
Will Hurst, Managing Editor, Architects Journal
Housing 2030 - A toolkit for affordable and carbon-friendly housing
Prof. Dr. Holger Wallbaum, Professor in Sustainable Building, Chalmers University of Technology
Session 2: In practice – retrofit and re-use of buildings
Chaired by Andrew Burrell, Chair, The Academy of Urbanism
People-powered retrofit
Helen Grimshaw, Senior Sustainability Consultant, URBED
Rejuvenating social housing in Berlin and Frankfurt
Thomas Kraubitz, Director and Head of Sustainability in Europe, Buro Happold Cities Europe
Existing buildings – who decides what is kept and what is demolished
Nick Walker, Collective Architecture
Learning lessons from an evaluation of a traditional tenement retrofit
Professor Ken Gibb, Director and Principal Investigator, UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)
Session 3: Sustainable Neighbourhoods Implementation and implications
Chaired by Chris Brown, Executive Chair, Igloo
Developing with a sustainable agenda
John Coleman, Chief Executive, Land Development Agency Ireland
Retrofitting for quality of life
Dr. Elanor Warwick, Head of Strategic Policy and Research, Clarion
Retrofitting for active neighbourhoods
Wesley Wroe, Principal Engineer, Stantec
Josh Grantham, Stantec
Delivering reuse in neighbourhoods – Kelham Island, Sheffield
Jonathan Wilson, Development Director, Citu
Net Zero Carbon Neighbourhoods
Jacqueline Homan, Head of Environment, West Midlands Combined Authority
Session 4: Urbanists towards COP26
David Rudlin, Director, The Academy of Urbanism
Households Declare
Anna Lisa McSweeney, Member of ACAN, Member of Steering Group of Architects Declare, and Arkitekt at White Arkitekter
Presentation and discussion on the role of urbanists in the climate crisis.
Image of housing by Natesh Ramasamy via Flickr
