The STBA-SPAB Annual Conference: Sustaining Buildings 2022

The STBA / SPAB Annual Conference: Sustaining Buildings 2022 
In partnership with SPAB Scotland                           

12 October 2022
09:00 - 17:00
Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT
£75 per person - STBA or SPAB members
£85 per person - non-members
£45 per person - students
Concessions - please contact us with your circumstances.

The conference is now FULLY BOOKED.

The popular STBA / SPAB annual conference returns in-person this autumn for a full day of presentations and Q&A sessions by UK experts in the field. With retrofit and the green agenda firmly in the eye of the public, SPAB Scotland and STBA bring you a selection of speakers who will dive deeper into these topics and provide expert analysis of embodied carbon, training opportunities, estate-wide significance and much more. The conference will be held at historic Dovecot Studios, in Edinburgh's Old Town, which is an exemplary conversion of a disused public baths now housing tapestry studios, conference facilities, exhibition space, shop and café.     

Conference Schedule (subject to minor changes) :

Wednesday 12 October 2022

09:00 Registration opens

09:30 Welcome

09:40 - 11:15 Scottish Policy & Practice
Keynote presentation: Roger Curtis, Historic Environment Scotland
Scott Abercrombie & Barbara Lantschner, John Gilbert Architects
Ann-Marie Fallon, Architype

11:15 - 11:30 Refreshment break

11:30 - 13:00 Research and Education/Training
Nigel Griffiths, STBA
Lisa Pasquale, RetrofitWorks
Dr Chris Whitman, Cardiff University
Caitriona Jordan, BE-ST
Kirsty Cassels, Creative Cassels

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 15:30 Comfort
Douglas Kent, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)
John Butler
Grigor Mitchell, Grigor Mitchell Architects
Athina Petsou, UCL/Historic England
Paul Higginson, ARC

15:30 - 15:45 Refreshment break

15:45 - 17:00  Interactive Workshop
Ailsa Macfarlane, BEFS
Bobby Jewell, ACAN Scotland
Scott McAulay, Architype / ACAN Scotland
Gloria Lo, ACAN Scotland
Roger Curtis, Historic Environment Scotland

17:00 Close

About the Conference Speakers:

Scott Abercrombie - Architect and Associate Director, John Gilbert Architects 
Scott leads the conservation projects, BIM implementation and the development of the Tenement Toolbox initiative at John Gilbert Architects. Scott is a director of the Alexander Thomson Society and chairs the Glasgow Institute of Architects Conservation Committee.

John Butler - Sustainable Building Consultant
John Butler is a sustainable building consultant combining practical guidance and hands-on experience with research and interrogation of data. Working in both brand-new buildings and sensitive retrofit of historical buildings, John provides Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) calculations and design support, life-time embodied and operational carbon calculations, and advice on suitable materials and approaches for high-comfort, low-carbon construction.

Kirsty Cassels - Designer and Builder, Creative Cassels
Kirsty places importance on natural and sustainable building materials and encourages traditional building skills and crafts while exploring new products and techniques of building. Kirsty has served as Vice Chair of the Scottish Ecological Design Association.

Roger Curtis - Head of Technical Resources, Historic Environment Scotland (HES)
Roger is a chartered building surveyor experienced in the repair and conservation of a wide range of traditional and historic structures. At HES, Roger advises the public and professionals on defects, repairs and alterations to traditional and historic buildings, and has worked with Scottish Government on wider issues affecting the built environment including training, materials supply chain and sustainability. 

Ann-Marie Fallon - Associate Director, Architect & Passivhaus Designer, Architype
Ann-Marie is one of the UK’s leading experts on Passivhaus design and has shared her experience at UK and international Passivhaus Trust conferences. Ann Marie is leading an Architype team to develop an innovative process to create compatible workflows for Passivhaus and BIM implementation; streamlining the delivery of certified projects. She has a sound working knowledge of specialist thermal bridging and hygrothermal software as well as whole building energy modelling software.

Nigel Griffiths - Director, STBA
Nigel is a sustainability and energy efficiency expert in the built environment with over 25 years’ experience as a practitioner, project manager, author and consultant. As Director of the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance, he works at the cutting edge of sustainability for heritage buildings.

Paul Higginson - Associate Architect, ARC
Paul is an advanced conservation accredited associate architect working on a variety of eco-focussed projects for  award-winning practice ARC - Architecture Research Conservation - based in Cupar, Fife.

Bobby Jewell - Architectural Communications Consultant / ACAN Scotland
Bobby is a Glasgow-based press and communications consultant with over a decade of experience working in the architecture and cultural industries. Bobby is on the Steering Group, and coordinates press, for Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) Scotland.

Caitriona Jordan - Head of Retrofit, BE-ST
Caitriona has worked on a range of projects such as Inclusive Value, Offsite Ready and Embracing Modular Innovation in Construction. Caitriona’s passion is in Low Carbon including the training and upskilling in Passivhaus, EnerPHit and Retrofit.

Douglas Kent - Technical and Research Director, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)
Douglas has held surveying roles in the private and public sectors, including the military. He publishes and lectures regularly on building conservation and has contributed to various radio and television programmes.

Barbara Lantschner - Building Performance Specialist & Associate Director, John Gilbert Architects 
Barbara leads the deep retrofit and building performance evaluation projects at John Gilbert Architects, focusing on low carbon strategies, performance gap assessment, indoor air quality and building users engagement programmes. She also has extensive experience in Passive House projects including the Niddrie Road tenement retrofit located in the Southside of Glasgow. Barbara is also a board member of the People Power Retrofit service in Manchester.

Gloria Lo - Chartered Architect and Consultant / ACAN Scotland
Gloria is Principal and owner of OiSA Designs, which delivers sustainable projects and gives clients solid, researched, knowledge-based solutions; special expertise in solar energy, daylight studies, environmentally sound specifications and solutions. With a focus on health and well-being, and holistic approach to building solutions, Gloria considers environment, climate change solutions and ergonomics as part of life-time homes.

Scott McAulay - Part II Architectural Assistant, Architype / ACAN Scotland
Scott is an expert in climate emergency education and climate literacy. With Architype, Scott’s focus has been on embodied carbon analysis, sustainability advice and climate action. Scott’s interests in architecture lie in the opportunities that adaptation, construction, maintenance, and upgrade create to improve health and wellbeing and reduce carbon impact. 

Ailsa Macfarlane - Director, Buit Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS)
Ailsa became BEFS Director in 2021, having previously joined BEFS as Policy and Strategy Manager. She has been responsible for complex work areas within BEFS such as responding to the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019, Prioritisation work – informing the Sustainable Investment Toolkit on behalf of the OPiT Built Heritage Investment Group, and aiding understanding of sector responses to crisis through CHERF.

Grigor Mitchell - Director, Grigor Mitchell Architects
Grigor is an award-winning architect and certified Passivhaus designer specialising in innovative, economic and energy efficient projects for homeowners and commercial clients. Grigor established his practice in 2009 and has a strong portfolio of work throughout Scotland, drawing on expertise developed through his own company and previously with practices in Edinburgh, Germany and Austria.

Lisa Pasquale - Technical Lead, RetrofitWorks
Lisa is responsible for the overall strategy and direction of RetrofitWorks technical offering for domestic retrofits. She’s a trained Architect and chartered CIBSE engineer, with over 10 years experience in low-energy construction and building performance. Lisa won the UKGBC Rising Star award for her work on de-risking large-scale domestic retrofits, which later became part of the national standard of domestic retrofit, PAS2035.

Athina Petsou - UCL / Historic England
Athina is a chemical and materials engineer specialised in historic buildings restoration. Experienced in multidiscipline cooperation with strong interests in sustainability in historic buildings, thermal comfort and energy efficiency.

Dr Chris Whitman - Senior Lecturer, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
Chris is a British architect with a PhD from the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff, where he is currently a lecturer and course leader for the MSc in Sustainable Building Conservation. He continues to research the topic of his PhD - the distribution of historic timber-framed buildings in the UK and the impact of their energy retrofit.

Conference Exhibitors:

We have space for a few invited exhibitors at our conference.

Ecological Building Systems UK Ltd. With a leading range of solutions specifically designed to sympathetically renovate and retrofit traditional and heritage properties, Ecological Building Systems can help you maintain and preserve the original features and character of buildings, whilst ensuring effective insulation, breathability and moisture control. Ecological Building Systems is a member of the STBA.

Brucefield Estate is a luxury eco-tourism hideaway where contemporary, sustainable design as well as conservation and wildlife come first. Tucked away in ancient woodlands with a rich wildlife and historic landscape, and unique ancestry. 

VELUX roof windows have been bringing daylight and fresh air into homes around the world for more than 80 years. Their products help create bright, healthy and energy-efficient places in which to live, work, learn and play. VELUX have an objective to find ways for the building industry to be sustainable. Preserving and improving our existing building stock is the best way to reduce use of material and energy. Daylight and fresh air with roof windows is a key element to increase the future value of traditional and historic buildings, making it a healthy and comfortable place for it’s the occupants.

Exhibitors have been invited to the conference by the STBA.
The Society for the Protection of Ancienct Buildings (SPAB) is not affiliated with any of these exhibitors.

Accessibility:
Please contact us if there are any adaptations we can make that would make the conference more accessible for you. We would be happy to have an informal chat about the event and possible access issues before you book.

Booking Terms & Conditions

The STBA (Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance) is an alliance of the UK's leading organisations associated with the conservation and improvement of traditional buildings. The STBA aims to develop policy, guidance and training to minimise risks and maximise benefits to traditional buildings and their owners.

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) was founded by Wlliam Morris in 1877 to counteract the highly destructive 'restoration' of medieval buildings being practised by many Victorian architects. The SPAB remains true to its founding principles and is now the oldest and most technically expert building conservation charity in the UK, fighting to save old buildings from decay, demolition and damage. The SPAB is a membership organisation and offers training, events and expert advice, as well as publishing a quarterly Magazine, technical pamphlets and advice notes.

SPAB Scotland was set up in 1995, by SPAB members living and working in Scotland, as a semi-autonomous group. Scotland has its own building traditions, architectural language and property laws, all of which are best dealt with locally. All members of the SPAB residing in Scotland are automatically members of SPAB Scotland.