SETU’s Department of Architecture and Built Environment welcomed Dr Peter Cox, Managing Director of Carrig Conservation, for a two-day staff workshop on 23 to 24 October 2023, exploring the often-conflicting relationship between climate change and built heritage and inherent material life cycles in conservation.

With offices in Dublin and London, Carrig Conservation was set up in 1995, specialising in historic building materials and is one of the oldest and largest building conservation consultancies currently operating in Ireland, with a specialist focus on architecture and energy efficiency in traditional buildings.

They compiled the Climate Change Adaptation Sectoral Plan for Built and Archaeological Heritage for the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht which has now been incorporated with the National Climate Action Plan.

Dr Cox was also a lead author of the “Guidelines on the Energy Retrofit of Architecturally, Culturally and Historically important Buildings” and were commissioned by Historic England to work on the project entitled “Understanding Carbon in the Built Environment”.

Rubrics Building, Trinity College Dublin – A Case Study

The case study of the Rubrics Building, Trinity College Dublin, was used as a basis for discussions with Peter and SETU staff.  It is the oldest remaining building on the TCD Campus and dates from 1698 – 1702 with a major intervention in 1894. The building housed retired professors, emeritus professors, visiting lecturers and one or two offices. The building was in a very poor state of repair although the external redbrick west elevation was raked and repointed in 2007. Carrig were appointed both conservation and energy consultants to a full design team and were allowed the freedom to carry out an in-depth analysis on the building that then informed the decisions and strategy for the full and detailed intervention.

The discussion with Peter and SETU Staff included some brainstorming how the above approaches for the Rubrics Building, and guidelines, can be explicitly implemented in the delivery of Architectural Design tutoring.