THE HERITAGE IMPERATIVE:
OLD BUILDINGS IN AN AGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
September 24 - 26, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
Fairmont Royal York Hotel
Climate change. Green building. Economic renewal. Older buildings have answers for the biggest questions of our generation. The 2009 Heritage Canada Foundation conference will bring together delegates and speakers from the fields of heritage preservation, environmental conservation and green building to explore these themes. This is an essential event for advocates, architects, municipal planners, developers, public policy makers, elected officials and property owners. Delegates will learn how the rehabilitation and re-use of older buildings and existing neighbourhoods can help save the planet – and how the green movement and architectural conservation will become more integrated in the process.
The conference is designed to foster exchange and collaboration through expert panels consisting of a session leader and presenters from the heritage, environmental and green communities – each of them bringing the perspective of their respective field. Each 15-20 minute presentation will use research results, examples and case studies as stepping stones to broadly applicable principles and/or concrete recommendations for practice.
Proposals for presentations and field sessions are invited on the following themes:
• Environmental Stewardship and the Built Environment: sustainable districts and neighbourhoods; innovative and challenging adaptive re-use projects; brownfield redevelopment; integrated community sustainability planning.
• Making the Case for Existing Buildings: embodied energy; lifecycle analysis; “true cost” economics; green qualities of older buildings and traditional materials; durability and maintainability.
• Greening Older Buildings: efficient energy retrofits; applying green rating systems to existing buildings; new green technologies for old buildings.
• Values, Principles and Hard Decisions: when heritage buildings can’t go green; rehab projects that push the envelope; knowing when “enough is enough” – from a green and a heritage perspective.
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