Carbon-emission considerations in built heritage conservation to address the climate change

Abstract

A great deal of manpower and material resources has been devoted to protect the historical and cultural city by the government. As early as 1987, the “Washington Charter” proposed that “the protection of historic urban areas should become an integral part of the overall effect of social and economic development, and also should be taken into account at all levels of urban planning and management plans.” In the process of modernization, only if the development will be integrated into the entire city and its operating mechanism, it is possible to pursue the more efficient and slowrelease cultural values by a spirit with more rationality and responsibility in a wider geographical area. Therefore, the establishment of a new type of heritage conservation model not only has a very broad prospect, but also has a profound and lasting significance. In Hong Kong as a fast-moving economy and dense city, up to now, a total of 1444 heritage sites on the key protection list have been publicized by The Antiquities Advisory Board in Hong Kong. Compared to new construction works socially, conservation projects help to retain the sense of place and cultural heritage of a community, and can conserve buildings that might otherwise be obsolete or prematurely demolished. Environmentally, these projects lessen the demand for new resources through reusing part or all of a building’s fabric, reducing construction debris and minimizing ecological footprint through the reclamation of carbon embodied in existing materials. However, economically the cost of these projects may be more or less than that of the new-build, depending on the extent of conservation works, latent conditions of the project and complexities involved in construction. New build projects, of course, have fewer constraints and can offer higher levels of utility through new design and increased development intensity. This study aim to take into consideration of carbon emission to quantified the merits of reusing heritage buildings over new construction from an environmental perspective with due consideration of construction cost to support decision-making for sustainable heritage conservation.