On 20th June, we held a very successful public meeting on Home Energy and Retrofit. About 40 people attended, roughly half of whom were residents of Bruntsfield. Others came from further afield, including most parts of Edinburgh — Marchmont, Morningside, Tollcross, Polwarth, Meadows, Southside, The Grange, Leith, Duddingston, Portobello, Willowbrae, Bellevue, Comiston and Meadowbank.

Questions considered included:

• What retrofit measures can individuals take to improve energy efficiency in their homes?
• Does it make better sense to look at retrofitting groups of properties, for example in a whole tenement, rather than just on an individual level?
• How might we deal with the social and financial challenges of retrofit and low-carbon energy distribution at a communal level?

There were brief presentations from three experts, followed by a panel Q&A:

• Jo McClelland — RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Conservation accredited architect with EALA Impacts, a social enterprise for sustainability in the management of our built environment
• Calum Duncan — Calum Duncan Architects, locally-based RIAS (Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland) Sustainable Building Design and RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Conservation accredited architect
• Cat Magill — Dark Matter Labs, a non-profit collaborating with communities to shape institutions and infrastructure for response to the climate crisis

We will shortly publish a more detailed report on the ideas, questions and challenges that emerged from the presentations and ensuing discussions. In the meantime, we thought it would be useful to make copies of the three presentations available.

Presentations

MP3 audio files of the three presentations can be downloaded from this Google Drive folder.

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Cat Magill (Dark Matter Labs): Redesigning the Retrofit Experience

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Joanne McClelland (EALA Impacts): The ABC of Community Resilience

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Calum Duncan (Calum Duncan Architects): Don’t Panic!