PARTIE 2 - Icomos

Theme 2
Session 2
REPORT
Senior rapporteur
Laura Robinson
Cape Town Heritage Trust (ICOMOS South Africa)
EFFICIENCY
Junior rapporteurs
Maie Kitamura
Heritage Architect, Ecole de Chaillot, Paris (France)
Gong Xuelan
Department of Project Management, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute
(China)
The second session of this theme was entitled ‘Efficiency’. The overarching issue addressed by most of
the speakers was that of sustainability within the broadest context. Speakers presented both scientifically
informed studies into the technical performance of materials as well as specific case studies.
Much of the concluding debate focussed upon the challenges posed by the stringent regulations enforced by
authorities relating particularly to issues of health and safety. The regulations, when applied strictly within the
letter of the law to historic buildings, sites and structures usually have a severely detrimental impact upon the
integrity of the heritage resource.
We were reminded of an earlier ICOMOS resolution stating that considerations relating to energy efficiency
should not prevail over heritage considerations; similarly the discussion regarding the possible formation of an
ISC for ‘Energy efficiency and historic buildings’, proposed by Peter Cox (ICOMOS Ireland) during the course of
the ADCOM meeting held in Dublin in 2010, was recalled.
ICOMOS was requested to facilitate in the debate in this regard between heritage professionals and the
various authorities. Ultimately the aim should be to convince the authorities that these regulations, which are
imposed in terms of the building codes, be relaxed so that appropriate solutions and methods may be used
when intervening in heritage buildings. It had been suggested that authority for many heritage building should
be devolved to the local authority who may well be better placed to assess the appropriateness of traditional
and vernacular building techniques in particular.
In concluding the session it was agreed that heritage and sustainability are indeed mutually supportive. The
point had been during the course of the session that heritage conservation is the only strategy that is socially,
environmentally and economically responsible. The restoration and re-use of heritage buildings and structures,
and the use of traditional materials and building methods had proven to be as, if not more sustainable than
contemporary buildings and new construction materials. This had been clearly demonstrated in the various
case studies made during the presentations.
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LE PATRIMOINE, MOTEUR DE DÉVELOPPEMENT
HERITAGE, DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT