The vital role of archaeological research in planning for a changed climate
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-08-03

Despite preconceptions to the contrary, there is no essential conflict between “heritage conservation” and the actions needed to reduce energy and carbon in the built environment, or to adapt for a future in a changed climate. If conflict exists, it is in the showpiece buildings constructed after the Industrial Revolution, in response to energy being cheap and on tap: earlier buildings, by contrast, simply had to be usable with a minimum input of precious energy. Moreover, the buildings that have come down to us were not only successful in this sense, but also successfully survived centuries of weather extremes. Far from being a “special interest” group that requires special protection, our older architectural heritage is actually a repository of exactly the knowledge we need to learn how to return to ways of living and ways of building that consume the minimum amount of energy, and do not depend on fossil fuels.
Key to effective improvement must be seeing the building system as a whole, composed of not just the building fabric, but of the users, and the systems they incorporated to permit the uses they wished for the building. Clearly, this implies a vital role for the architectural archaeologist, who can see through ill-advised later changes and losses and read the story behind alterations made to improve the building’s response to environmental problems, to find solutions adaptable for the present and for the future.

Robyn Pender, Historic England