The 2022 ASCHB conference will aim to draw lessons from heritage, viewing the historic built environment not as a problem, but as a critical part of the solution. It will look at familiar problems with new eyes:

• The pursuit of ‘net-zero’: what does this really mean, and why is it important? How can our built environment be modified to meet carbon targets, and how do we assess where we are and where we are going?
• Adaptation to overheating, flooding, storms and other weather extremes: can this increase the lifespan and useability of buildings, but simultaneously cut carbon?
• What can the design and use of pre-Industrial buildings and landscapes teach us? Our built environment changed dramatically when we began to burn fossil fuels on an industrial scale. How do we disentangle the many real advances of the industrial age from the myriad changes that have reduced building lifespans, are energy-hungry and belch carbon?
• How have changes in policy, regulation and assessment affected the way we design, construct and use our buildings?

In posing these questions we seek to lay down some foundations for a practical new vision for the future: an interdisciplinary vision that combines the best of both modern and historic technology and practices, avoids maladaptation, and embeds learning and education, so that lessons are learnt and wisdom is passed on.

This is a vision which places the users of the built environment once again at the centre of decisions.