SEDA Conference / 2023
progressing retrofit
Designing for Human Factors: Comfort, Health & Affordability
SEDA’s Annual Conference, is back with the topic of ‘Progressing Retrofit’ and will be held in Glasgow and Online, on 15th & 16th September.
We have a fantastic line up of speakers & workshops that are targeting getting practical things done!
Because the event will involve refreshments and lunch through each day for those attending in person we would be grateful if you could book early to help us to firm up numbers. Also please do circulate to your colleagues, friends, family, teachers & students plus anyone who might want to pick up some tips on what they might do in their own homes & communities.
Scroll down the page to find out more about the Keynote Speakers, the summary’s of the Workshops and the schedules for Friday & Saturday.
Keynote speakers
Photograph of Bill Bordass.
Bill Bordass, William Bordass Associates
Retrofit – a sense of proportion
Bill Bordass is a scientist who learnt about architectural, planning and engineering projects at the multi-skilled practice RMJM London and led its building services, environmental and energy consultancy. In 1984 he set up on his own to focus on how buildings (new, existing and historic) perform in use, including research, troubleshooting and providing advice. In the late 1990s, he helped to set up www.usablebuildings.co.uk which disseminates information on building performance in use and its implications for policy and practice.
Photograph of Roger Curtis.
Roger Curtis, Historic Environment Scotland
Retrofit of traditional and listed buildings
Roger Curtis is a chartered building surveyor experienced in the repair and conservation of a wide range of traditional and historic structures. In the role of Head of Technical Resources at Historic Environment Scotland, Roger advises the public and professionals on defects, repairs and alterations to traditional and historic buildings, and has worked with Scottish Government on wider issues affecting the built environment including training, materials supply chain and sustainability.
Photograph of Paul Sweeney.
Paul Sweeney, MSP
Role of policy in successful retrofit and empowering community groups to save their local building
Paul John Sweeney FIES VR is a Scottish politician. A member of the Scottish Labour and Co-operative Party, he currently serves as Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region in the 6th Scottish Parliament, elected in May 2021. Paul supports urban regeneration and takes active interest in built environment and building conservation issues.
workshops
Workshop 1: From Physics to People
How do you put fabric first ? Join us on 15th September to hear about comfort, health and wellbeing through principles of building physics .
Speakers to include:
Gloria Lo, OISA Design. Building physics for comfort
Gloria is principal and owner of OiSA Designs, with over 20 years of experience in Conservation and Sustainable design. In line with her passion to be a good temporary custodian of both the built heritage and the planet, she delivers sustainable projects and gives clients solid, knowledge-based, environmentally sound specifications and solutions, with expertise in solar energy and daylight. She believes that health and well-being, ergonomics, and holistic approach to buildings, is not only part of ‘life-time homes’ ethos but as planned resilience in climate emergency. Currently undertaking research in hygroscopic building materials and its use in relation to indoor humidity at Strathclyde University. She lectures at the University of Edinburgh (ESALA) and is a visiting tutor and lecturer at other Universities on climate literacy, technical skills, and material specification. Writer and teacher of Understanding Building Physics Fundamentals course for AECB. Examiner for APEAS Part 3 architects’ qualification. Various qualifications include Certified Passivhaus Designer, BREEAM Accredited Professional and Domestic Refurbishment. A director of Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA), volunteers with RIAS Education committee and Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN).
Andrew McQuatt, Max Fordham, Edinburgh A better place to live
Andrew is passionate about reducing carbon emissions from existing buildings while improving living conditions for occupants. It is time to take action and improve our existing building stock at scale. Andrew has gained expertise in environmental building design and mechanical and electrical system design through his experience working as a Building Services Engineer in various sectors, including museums, housing, galleries, visitor centres, offices, and sports centres. But many of Andrew's most valuable lessons have come from installing an air source heat pump at his 125-year-old home. Andrew will share his decarbonisation journey.
Photograph of Gloria Lo.
Photograph of Andrew McQuatt.
Workshop 2: Retrofitting for healthy communities and people
How can retrofit serve people and communities? Join us on 15th September and meet experts who bring unique perspectives on the importance of people factor in regeneration of neighbourhoods and acceleration of socially just retrofit strategies .
Speakers to include:
Alix Medlyn-Davies, Place Workstream - Scottish Futures Trust Place based approach to retrofit
Alix aims to put Place, Net Zero & UN Sustainable Development goals at the core of design and investment. She currently works at the Scottish Futures Trust where she provides strategic and programme management expertise across the Place, Housing and Economic Investment workstream, with a particular focus on Place and Net Zero. She is a confident strategic thinker and has extensive experience leading stakeholder engagement and diverse teams to design and deliver concurrent complex high-profile programmes and projects.
Alix is a qualified Project Manager, has qualifications in Leadership and Management and has just completed study in Sustainable Finance at the University of Oxford with the support of SFT.
Matt Clubb, Nesfit- North East Scotland Retrofit Hub Community at the heart of retrofit planning
Matthew is an architectural designer, Passivhaus Designer and Retrofit Coordinator based in Aberdeenshire. His practice specialises in low-energy buildings and retrofit of existing buildings. Matt is a chair of NESFIT Retrofit Hub actively working on decarbonising strategies for buildings in the North East of Scotland.
Chris Carus, Loco Home Developing a scalable whole home retrofit advice service
Chris is a Co-founder and Executive Officer at Loco Home Retrofit CIC, a community-led intermediary to accelerate heat decarbonisation in Glasgow. Loco Home are a co-op made up mostly of households but also open to trades and construction professionals. Their advice and retrofit ‘hand holding’ services are designed and governed by their members. Loco Home also participate in leading edge innovation and research.
Chris is a certified Passive House Consultant, AECB Carbonlite Retrofit graduate, Heat Geek Master, DEA and PAS2035 Retrofit Assessor.
Photograph of Alix Medlyn-Davies.
Photograph of Matt Clubb.
Photograph of Chris Carus.
Workshop 3: To make or to mend?
That is the question we will tackle the thorny issue of when and if buildings should ever be demolished, and who gets to decide. Through a socratic dialogue we will encourage a creative exchange of views to seek improve understanding and establish some policy guidelines.
Speakers to include:
Facilitator: Ellie Sweetnam
Ellie is Fellowship and Membership Engagement Manager at the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) and an independent researcher. Her own work examines neutrality within the conservation field and how the continuation of inherent biases perpetuates the often-violent status quo within museums. Through her work at the IIC she has begun the journey into moderating Socratic Dialogues, which work in parallel with her own beliefs in pushing for critical and reflective thinking.
Alix Medlyn-Davies
Alix aims to put Place, Net Zero & UN Sustainable Development goals at the core of design and investment. She currently works at the Scottish Futures Trust where she provides strategic and programme management expertise across the Place, Housing and Economic Investment workstream, with a particular focus on Place and Net Zero. She is a confident strategic thinker and has extensive experience leading stakeholder engagement and diverse teams to design and deliver concurrent complex high-profile programmes and projects.
Alix is a qualified Project Manager, has qualifications in Leadership and Management and has just completed study in Sustainable Finance at the University of Oxford with the support of SFT.
Richard Atkins
Richard Atkins Is a Member of RIAS Council, the Non-executive Board, Practice Committee, Sustainability Working Group and Chair of the Governance & Policy Committee. He has over forty years experience in the construction industry and has been responsible for a number of exemplar sustainable buildings, as well as providing consultancy advice to Communities Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, The City of Edinburgh Council, SUST, WWF, HEEPI. In 2017 Richard completed a PhD in the Assessment of Social, Financial and Environmental Sustainability in the Existing Built Environment at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Catherine Cosgrove
Catherine is an architect with more than 25 years’ experience on a wide range of projects and leads the sustainability group at Austin-Smith: Lord. She has a particular focus on conservation and sustainable design and holds RIAS accreditation in both. Catherine is the current chair of the Scottish Ecological Design Association.
David Black
David J Black is a former Sunday Times Scottish-based journalist. He has written extensively for, among other titles, The Guardian, The Observer, Scotland on Sunday, The Daily Mail, The Spectator, The Herald, The Scotsman, Scottish Legal News, Private Eye, The Architects Journal, and Country Life.
His fiction includes contributions to BBC Radio 4's Morning Story (also on PBS America) while his play Nancy's Philosopher, about the controversial relationship of David Hume and Nancy Ord, was staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017, and restaged in 2019 before Hume's portrait in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Previous books include All the First Minister's Men (Birlinn; 2004) which exposed the scandal behind the construction of the new Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood, Edinburgh, and The Virgin Good Junk Guide (Virgin Publishing; 1993) based on a six week series he wrote for The Observer Magazine. In 2006 he was awarded a Gilder-Lehrman grant to research historic links between Scotland and America, 1600-1850. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Chris Morgan
Chris is an architect and a Director at John Gilbert Architects with over 30 years’ experience in ecological design and sustainable development. He has maintained a range of experience from masterplanning and energy infrastructure, through to award-winning and innovative architecture, research and teaching.
Previously a Chair of the Scottish Ecological Design, Chris is one of only three architects with advanced sustainable architecture accreditation from the RIAS. He is a design review panellist for Architecture + Design Scotland and has certification in Passivhaus design, building biology and permaculture.
Scott McAulay
Scott McAulay is a Glaswegian climate and spatial justice activist, a founding member of ACAN Scotland, a Co-Producer of the Architecture Fringe, and a Part 2 Architectural Assistant at Architype - one of the U.K.’s leading sustainable architecture studios, that specialises in Passivhaus-led and low carbon design. His work with the Anthropocene Architecture School has created spaces for thousands of people to come together and learn about the climate solutions and opportunities for a Just Transition in our built environments, and generated international impacts in architectural education - teaching widely across the U.K., Turtle Island, and mainland Europe, and beyond. In 2023 so far, Scott has undertaken a residency during Architecture is Climate at Central St Martins - exploring the theme of Unlearning Powerlessness, contributed to European Sustainable Energy Week 2023 in Brussels on the invitation of the Architects Council of Europe, and contributed to an upcoming anthology sharing outcomes of 2021’s School of Re-Construction. Scott supports a variety of climate justice, and community causes across Scotland, is an active member of Living Rent — Scotland’s tenants’ union and is currently co-creating Retrofit Reimagined 2023 with partners across the U.K.
Photograph of Ellie Sweetnam.
Photograph of Alix Medlyn-Davies.
Photograph of Richard Atkins.
Photograph of Catherine Cosgrove.
Photograph of David Black.
Photograph of Chris Morgan.
Photograph of Scott McAulay.
Workshop 4: Getting your hands dirty!
Can we see examples of what we can do on our properties? Join us on 16th September to learn how retrofitting can increase your property's value while reducing your energy costs from discussion with experts who have got their hands dirty retrofitting their own homes .
Speakers to include:
Lisa Pasquale Cutting your bills in half in a traditional tenement
Lisa was technical lead at RetrofitWorks, setting the direction for their technical offering for domestic retrofits. She ran her own specialist engineering consultancy for 13 years. She’s a trained Architect and chartered CIBSE engineer, with over 20 years experience in low-energy construction and building performance. Lisa won the UKGBC Rising Star award for her work on de-risking large-scale domestic retrofits, which later became part of the national standard of domestic retrofit, PAS2035.
Elliot Payne
Elliot Payne is an architect who has directed his own practice for the past 10 years. The practice has been a vehicle for the exploration of his interests in material culture, holistic design and people. Elliot has worked on a wide range of historic buildings and complex sites alongside idiosyncratic clients, unique contractors, and specialist consultants. In addition to planning and construction work, the practice has delivered short films, digital twins (HBIM) and spreadsheets as solutions to clients building related problems
Alongside his wife, Caroline, an Artist, they are currently developing 1000m of Live / Work space in Fife as a multi generational home and location for Caroline’s Studio. The project will rehabilitate a derelict steading and focus on how they best resource the buildings for longevity, comfort and responsible use of our materials and energy.
Photograph of Lisa Pasquale.
Photograph of Elliot Payne.
Workshop 5: Financing retrofit
We will hear about fuel poverty in Scotland, policy, grants available for housing retrofit and some personal experiences – good and bad - of grant applications that might inform our decision making. (Kate Cunningham)
Speakers will include:
Mike Teall, Snugg Energy Grants and other financing options for household energy improvements
Mike Teall is Chief Commercial Officer at Snugg, advocating for making energy efficient homes simple and affordable for everyone. Snugg is an easy-to-use online platform assisting homeowners to prioritise efficiency improvements, fund the work through grants and finance and connect with installers to reduce fuel bills and help speed up the UK’s transition to net zero.
Kate Cunningham, Energy Action Scotland
Kate Cunningham is Communications & Public Affairs Manager for Energy Action Scotland, the national fuel poverty charity. Prior to joining EAS, Kate led communications and engagement across a range of organisations and sectors including media, government, health, education, arts and football.
Scott Restrick, Link Group ltd. Delivery of a social housing service that meets environmental and social objectives in the context of retrofit
Scott Restrick was Technical and Training Manager at Energy Action Scotland until March 2021 and is now part of the Strategic Asset Planning team at Link Group where he leads on asset energy performance and energy management. At EAS, he managed training service delivery and development, research output and the provision of domestic energy consultancy services for a range of housing providers and EAS members. A graduate of Glasgow Caledonia University, he has held many advisory and committee roles within the energy efficiency field as well as roles in the fields of microgeneration, compliance and building standards.
Jonathan Ratter, JWRC Conservation A Case Study
Jonathan Ratter is a Chartered Building Surveyor and historic buildings consultant with his own RICS Regulated practice specialising in traditional construction. He will be speaking about his experience of applying for grants to retrofit his house in Orkney.
Photograph of Mike Teall.
Photograph of Kate Cunning.
Photograph of Scott Restrick.
Photograph of Jonathan Ratter.
Workshop 6: Practical retrofit we are inviting everyone to bring along a retrofit project
Perhaps your own house or school building – that they are happy to describe. We will then form groups of similar building types and come up with handy hints and tips which will be fed back to everyone.
The KJ Award finalists will also present their design work and the winner will be announced.
friday 15th september 2023 - day 1
09.00- 09.30 Tea / coffee & networking
09.30 Welcome and introduction
09.40 Bill Bordass: Retrofit – a sense of proportion
10.10 Workshop 1: From physics to people
Gloria Lo (OISA Edinburgh) - Building physics for comfort
Andrew Mcquatt (Max Fordham, Edinburgh) - A better place to live
10.50 Tea / coffee break & networking
11.20 Workshop 2: Retrofitting for healthy communities and people
Alix Medlyn-Davies (Place Workstream - Scottish Futures Trust) – Place based approach to retrofit
Matt Clubb (Nesfit- North East Scotland Retrofit Hub) – Community at the heart of retrofit planning
Chris Carus (Loco Home) - Developing a scalable whole home retrofit advice service
12.30 Roger Curtis (Historic Environment Scotland) – Appropriate retrofit of traditional and listed buildings
13.00 Lunch and networking
14.00 Paul Sweeney (MSP) – Role of policy in successful retrofit and empowering community groups to save their local building
14.30 Workshop 3: Socratic dialogue – to make or to mend? That is the question
(triggers for retrofit / replacement: embracing human factors: affordability, health and comfort)
Facilitator:
Ellie Sweetnam.
Speakers:
Alix Medlyn-Davies
Richard Atkins
Catherine Cosgrove
David Black
Chris Morgan
Scott McAulay
17:30 Finish and networking
saturday 16th september 2023 - day 2
9:00-9:30 Tea / coffee & networking
09:30 Welcome and introduction
09:40 Workshop 4: Getting your hands dirty!
Lisa Pasquale - Cutting your bills in half in a traditional tenament
Elliot Payne (Balbougie Steading) - Re-inventing the wheel: adventures in avoiding expanding foam
10.30 The Krystyna Johnson Award Introduction: Jim Johnson Presentations from 5 student finalists
11.30 Tea / coffee break & networking
12.00 Workshop 5: Financing retrofit
Mike Teall (Snugg Energy) – Grants and other financing options for household energy improvements
Kate Cunningham (Energy Action Scotland)
Scott Restrick (Link Group ltd) – Delivery of a social housing service that meets environmental and social objectives in the context of retrofit
Jonathan Ratter (JWRC Conservation): Case Study
12.50 The Krystyna Johnson Award – Presentation to the winning student
13.00 Lunch and networking
14.00 Workshop 6: Practical retrofit
Bring a project to describe or work on the Piping Centre team
15.45 Feedback from project teams
16.30 Review of Conference outcomes and finish
