Part of Conservation in Common, a cross-disciplinary series of events for professionals working in the built heritage sector

Talk hosted by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

The climate crisis is the single biggest challenge facing humanity, and the construction industry must play a huge role in tackling this. However the greenest building is the one that already exists, so we must carefully examine how we can re-use our existing building stock in a sustainable way. At the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), we strongly believe that sensitive improvement and repair of historic buildings is a sustainable approach, which can reduce the impact of the built environment on the climate. The SPAB Approach to building conservation offers a ‘simple message of sustainability’ and in William Morris’s words ‘we are only trustees for those that come after us’.

This talk will look at the SPAB Approach in detail and examine why we should value our historic buildings for both their beauty and their sustainability, the role that building maintenance has to play in protecting our built heritage, and some ways that greater energy efficiency in old buildings can be achieved.

About the speaker

Tríona Byrne is a co-founder of the Irish branch of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and served as Chair for 5 years from its foundation in 2017 until 2021. She is a Structural Engineer working on conservation projects on buildings of all ages, style and size in the greater Dublin region. She completed the SPAB Scholarship in 2017 and is a SPAB Trustee. She is on the Conservation Group committee of Engineers Ireland and has been involved with the ICOMOS Ireland National Scientific Committee on Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change. She is a member of the Building Limes Forum of Ireland and the Dry Stone Walling Association of Ireland.