biid retrofit conference
Improving our future interiors
The audience at the BIID Retrofit Conference are ready for change Report by BIID and Jade Tilley
The British Institute of Interior Design is the pre-eminent body for professional interior designers in the UK.
The British Institute of Interior Design held their first Retrofit Conference back in March, taking an in-depth look at the way in which we can improve our designs to help in lower carbon emissions for the future.
H
eld at Chelsea Harbour Design Centre in London, I attended the day’s events, looking
forward to being part of the day, which saw professionals from a variety of design backgrounds come together to share their knowledge. It was not a test of what everyone knew, but what can be learned and applied to designs in the future, creating better concepts and utilising our existing materials and resources to enhance our living environment. The day was then closed off with a presentation of first Retrofit Design Awards. Conference delegates heard from
more than a dozen leading experts in environmentally friendly retrofit design, including designer Wayne Hemingway; Katy Lithgow, Head Conservator at the National Trust; and lighting designer Sally Storey. The day began with a talk from the
20 Interior Design Today
Government’s Chief Construction Adviser, Paul Morrell, who stressed the urgency of addressing the causes and effects of climate change, and set out the scale of the problem. The Government, he explained, was aiming for an 80 per cent cut in carbon emissions from housing by 2050 – but while new homes were being built to stricter environmental standards, that still left around 25 million older homes urgently in need of improvement. If improvements weren’t made voluntary, he warned: “We will have to tell people at some point that their houses are illegal.” The next speaker was Colin
Butfield, Head of Campaigns at wildlife charity WWF-UK. He told delegates that being green had to be made “more affordable, more attractive and more normal” .The charity runs the Great British Refurb Campaign, which aims to show how low-cost improvements to older housing can make a big difference to both carbon emissions and comfort. Oliver Novakovic, Director of
Housing Futures at BRE (Building Research Establishment), urged designers to take a dual approach –
creating buildings that use less energy and buying energy efficient products, and he revealed the cost of improving a building’s carbon footprint - £4,000 for a 40 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, up to a staggering £300,000 to turn an older property into a zero carbon home. James Pack, Director of construction company Skansen, followed on by explaining the Ska Rating, an assessment tool for sustainable fit-outs. While new homes are designed to be
air-tight to keep heating costs low, Head Conservator of the National Trust, Katy Lithgow, warned that in older properties this can cause excess humidity, damaging furniture and fittings and leading to poor air quality. She spoke of the wide range of approaches that the Trust was taking to improve the carbon footprint of its housing stock, from radical solutions such as photovoltaic ‘slates’ at Kynance Cove and solar panels at Dunster Castle, to traditional methods such as blinds, heavy curtains and shutters. Design Director at John Cullen
Lighting, Sally Storey, explained how the new Part L Building Regulations mean that three quarters of lights in a
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