Adaptation of the historic built environment to climate change

Climate change over the next a few decades will inevitably have a range of effects on heritage buildings across Europe. Unlike those 'easily modified' buildings, heritage buildings are difficult to adapt to the changing demands imposed by climate change, resulting in growing deficiencies in function and performance. This paper discusses a small scale study aiming to explore the suitability of potential adaptation solutions to the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, UK. The study examines the practical problems faced by the facility managers as they sought to develop such solutions and proposes a generic approach to sustainable asset management to heritage buildings. Computer simulation techniques are used to predict the building's thermal performance over the next 20-50 years based on the UKCIP projections. The paper concludes that, although heritage buildings adaptation is bound by various restraints, options do exist for asset managers and more need to be explored in practice.