EEPOCH a Multiple Case Study Involving Energy Efficiency, Preservation, and Management and Working Climate in Conservation Teams

Other conference contribution, 2011

The research project EEPOCH, Energy Efficiency and Preservation in Our Cultural Heritage, concerns the complex set of problems that exist between these two perspectives including usability and team organization in the preservation of built heritage. The teams’ performance determines the outcome of the conservation work, and their performance is to a great extent dependent on the leadership and management which are explored in this paper. There is a great potential for energy efficiency in the existing building stock. At the same time we know that built environment is an important heritage worth preserving, and does not only concern monuments. In the great rush to demonstrate energy efficiency, there is the risk of destroying quality that manifests in other ways. This is considered to be a contradiction. The hypothesis is that all perspectives can converge to be met in applied cases. The aim of EEPOCH is theory building, and development of useful methods for this. Case studies will form foundation for the methods. Preserved objects for studies are chosen from the Halland Model, a co-operation project and true model for integrated conservation. Its success is described as an outcome of an entrepreneurial model where the trading zone is defined as an active arena for negotiations and a field of force corresponding to the actors’ policies, values, facts and resources. It has, though, not thus far been evaluated regarding the energy performance or the working teams’ performance and their impact on the outcome of the conservation work. The latter is explored by interviewing the management for the teams. EEPOCH is carried through by multiple case studies and workshops, analysis of different measures and interviews, and document studies. The work so far indicates that the hypothesis is right and will result in models useful for objects other than monuments.