Output details

Adapting the Scottish Tenement to 21st Century Standards: An Evaluation of the Performance Enhancement of a 19th Century ‘Category B’ Listed Tenement Block in Edinburgh

This output describes research undertaken into the performance of low carbon retrrofit of a listed stone tenement in Edinburgh. The stone tenement is perhaps the most iconic type of housing in Scotland and to a large extent defines the built environment of its major cities and towns. However in the context of the climate change agenda which demands reduced energy consumption and CO2 production, such buildings are recognised to be a particular challenge in terms of both their poor energy performance, but also the limitations on improvement measures that do not have a detrimental affect on their form and appearance. As a result interventions that improve performance tend to less mainstream and it is therefore import to assess the effectiveness of these. This study undertook a research project to monitor the performance of the completed building and identified performance issues both in terms of energy use and health issues. It was funded through feasibility funding from CICStart online LUPS/ERDF/2008/2/1/0237 (£959k) 2009 - 2012 (of which the author was an academic co-director).The paper was developed from a conference presentation Findings from a post occupancy evaluation of adaptive restoration and performance enhancement of a 19th century ‘Category B’ listed tenement block in Edinburgh. In: Retrofit 2012, 24th to 26th January 2012, Salford. It has led to further research into Building Performance Evaluation, including over £470k research projects from the Technology Strategy Board/ The methodology used here was developed by the author in previous funded research (Development of Post Occupancy Evaluation for evaluation of innovative low carbon social housing projects, CICStart feasibility Study £5k) and the methodology developed here is also being used on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership project with Cartwright Pickard Architects in London (£139k).