"The Greenest Building is the One That is Already Built"
This idea was the jumping off point for Glasgow City Heritage Trust’s new window display from students in the Design Practice BA(hons) course at the City of Glasgow College. With the World Economic Forum estimating that the building sector creates almost 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, the students wanted to focus on how properly repairing and maintaining Glasgow’s historic buildings is a key part of a sustainable future and trying to reach net-zero.
By incorporating the colours of thermal imaging the design playfully contrasts the technological with the creative, merging the precision of modern building diagnostics with artistic expression to deliver a message about sustainability and built heritage.
Glasgow’s tenements are a major part of the city’s historic built environment, providing the city both with housing and a unique urban landscape. These older building, however, do require care and maintenance to avoid issues of damp, draughtiness and structural failures. As part of our window display, GCHT has put together some helpful resources and information about looking after tenement flats. We also regularly host “Taking Care of Your Tenement” events for homeowners, landlords and tenants to find out more about managing their flats. As a grant-funder GCHT might be able to help with the cost of repairs – see the section below about the Trust and its work.
The repair and maintenance of Glasgow’s built heritage is essential to preserving the city’s identity and ensuring it is able to meet goals around sustainability and lowering carbon emission. However, they require proper upkeep to ensure they remain functional, energy-efficient and appealing as spaces to live and work in.
Important Points to Consider
- Maintenance is an ongoing process and buildings should be checked regularly. Dealing with smaller issues in the short-term (such as blocked gutters or poor ventilation) will prevent much larger issues that require more intensive and expensive solutions in the long-term.
- Traditional buildings, typically those built before 1919, are designed to “breathe,” using vapour-open materials like lime, stone, and timber that allow moisture to move freely. When modern, impermeable materials (such as cement) are used for repairs they can trap moisture, leading to mould, rot, and structural damage. Therefore, it’s essential to use materials and techniques compatible with their original design.
- Owners in tenements have a legal duty to maintain the parts of the tenement that provide support and shelter.
Resources
Under One Roof is a Scotland-wide charity that provides free and impartial information to tenement flat owners, and housing professionals, on issues related to tenement maintenance, common repair management, and retrofit.
Their website can walk you through the ins and outs of taking care of a tenement flat, including the types of repairs you might need to undertake, working with neighbours to do repairs and how to find the right contractors to do the works.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body established to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment. They regularly publish free guides on properly repairing and maintaining historic buildings.
Thermal imaging is a diagnostic technology that uses thermal cameras to detect infrared radiation, which helps show heat patterns and changes in temperature. By looking at heat patterns, we can identify and address building issues such as heat loss, dampness or insulation gaps.
Energy efficiency means improving the way buildings work. More efficient buildings stay warmer in winter and cooler in summer, providing better thermal comfort for those inside while using less energy. This both lowers energy bills and, as the vast majority of households use gas to heat their homes, also reduces carbon emissions.
Sympathetically retrofitting historic buildings to improve their energy efficiency is a major part of making the historic built environment as sustainable as possible.
Glasgow City Heritage Trust is an independent charity and grant-funder that helps people access funding and expertise which will ensure the sustainability of Glasgow’s heritage for current and future generations.
We do this by:
- Grant-aiding historic building repairs, project development, traditional building skills training, education and outreach projects and other historic environment focussed projects.
- Giving technical advice
- Running a series of talks, events and other activities designed to engage people and communities with Glasgow’s heritage.