ICOMOS launches key international conference: ‘Living with the Past’, Dublin 8-9th May

Most Governments in the developed World signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to reduce their Energy Consumption and CO² emissions by 20% by 2020 based on 1990 levels. The majority of Governments have only recently commenced any meaningful initiatives to achieve these goals. More recently Governments have identified that by introducing a blanket drive to the “Retro Fit of all of Europe’s existing Housing Stock could produce a huge proportion of these targets whilst stimulating the ever decreasing Construction Market.

In 2010 at the ICOMOS International meetings in Dublin, Ireland it was accepted there will be a major international challenge and risk to the heritage value in achieving Energy Efficiency in Heritage and Traditional Buildings – based on this concern ICOMOS formed a working group led by ICOMOS Ireland and involving ICOMOS France and ICOMOS Belgium to research this sector and at the Advisory Council Meeting of 2012 in Beijing, China an International Scientific Committee was formed to spearhead the protection of our built heritage and to be proactive in producing international guidelines for intelligent and sensitive energy conservation in heritage and traditional buildings whilst promoting the importance of protecting the heritage value of our pre 1945 building stock.

This work is well advanced and gaining international recognition of the importance of our work – much research is now collated, national and international partners identified and guidelines advanced through our involvement with the CEN (Central European Standards Committee). We believe it is now time to widen the networking and to share the available information and case studies to date in this sector by holding an International Scientific Symposium in May 2014 in Dublin Castle, Dublin Ireland

There will be four main stands to the 2 Day Symposium:

  • Best International Research to-date
  • Case Studies across Europe & the USA
  • Advising our Governments on policies and strategies
  • Being positive about the challenges ahead

Within each strand there will be a number of important and recognised international speakers presenting work from all corners of Europe, we also hope to attract one or two speakers from China / Australia and the USA.

This is an opportunity to put Ireland on the international map for state of the art lead research in developing policies, theories and sustainable products in the development of strategies and systems for making our existing, heritage and traditional buildings more energy efficient whilst enhancing and securing its heritage values and perhaps more importantly contributing in a positive way to many governments achieving their international commitments in reducing energy demand, CO² emissions across this very important sector.

To view more information on the symposium please go to www.livingwiththepast2014.org