Green Tease: Reimagining retrofit

Cover photo features Glasgow’s Sustainable Landing by Alexander Hoyles and New Practice.

What would a sustainable retrofit of neighbourhoods across Scotland look like, during the climate and housing crises? At this upcoming Green Tease explore the overlap between housing struggles and climate breakdown with artists, activists, architects and sustainability practitioners.

Sign up here.

Together we will discuss how art and culture can support a just transition that can transform our homes, streets and schemes, in an environmentally and socially sustainable way. As bell hooks said: ‘The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is – it’s to imagine what is possible.’

Co-created by Creative Carbon Scotland and Scott McAulay from the Anthropocene Architecture School, we invite you to imagine how we might thrive together if our neighbourhoods were prepared for the changing climate. Through discussions, and exhibitions we invite you to reimagine what it means to ‘retrofit’, from individual homes to entire communities, reflecting upon our relationships to home and place.

This Green Tease will be an afternoon of coming together to explore the role of art and culture in shaping the future, and the role of those retrofitting homes, in practically getting us there. The tools to build sustainable, low-energy homes and to retrofit existing ones to standards fit for a climate emergency already exist – such buildings becoming the norm would both change and save lives. But without societal transformation, they will only remain possibilities.

Programme:

1.00pm: Welcome and introduction: why our built environment matters during the climate crisis, and the role it could play in Scotland’s Just Transition.

1.30pm: Reimagining retrofit workshop. Connecting home to the climate crisis and reimagining what it means ‘to retrofit’ at scales beyond individual homes with ACAN Scotland, BE Changemakers, Imagine If CIC & the Architecture Fringe.

2.30pm: Break with coffee and tea

2.45pm: Exhibition, reflection and networking time. Chance to watch the film Dampbusters by Winnie Herbstein which explores the past, present and future of community organising in Glasgow, and to explore exhibition material on housing from Imagine If CIC and the Wyndford exhibition, co-created by students from Glasgow School of Art with the residents who live there.

3.30pm: Drawing and willow workshop on imagining a different housing future

4.45pm: Wrapping up and thank you!

About the organisers 

Creative Carbon Scotland is Scotland’s leading arts and sustainability charity and Creative Scotland is the development body for the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland. Green Tease is our ongoing informal events programme connecting cultural practices and environmental sustainability across Scotland. If you have an idea for an event please apply here.

Collaborator

Scott McAulay is a Glaswegian climate and spatial justice activist, a founding member of ACAN Scotland, a Co-Producer of the Architecture Fringe, and a Part 2 Architectural Assistant at Architype – one of the U.K.’s leading sustainable architecture studios, that specialises in Passivhaus-led and low carbon design. His work with the Anthropocene Architecture School has created spaces for thousands of people to come together and learn about the climate solutions and opportunities for a Just Transition in our built environments, and generated international impacts in architectural education – teaching widely across the U.K., Turtle Island, and mainland Europe, and beyond. In 2023 so far,

Scott has undertaken a residency during Architecture is Climate at Central St Martins – exploring the theme of Unlearning Powerlessness, contributed to European Sustainable Energy Week 2023 in Brussels on the invitation of the Architects Council of Europe, and contributed to an upcoming anthology sharing outcomes of 2021’s School of Re-Construction. Scott supports a variety of climate justice, and community causes across Scotland, is an active member of Living Rent — Scotland’s tenants’ union. and is currently co-creating Retrofit Reimagined 2023 with partners across the U.K.

About the Anthropocene Architecture School

The Anthropocene Architecture School is an un/learning infrastructure with activist roots and ethos: fusing architectural education with Climate Literacy, explorations of Agency, Entanglement, Spatial Justice, and the Radical Imagination. Through its Crisis Studios, participatory workshops, talks, peoples’ assemblies, university lectures and dozens of events, it has created spaces for thousands of people, within and outwith traditional schools of architecture, to learn about where construction intersects with the climate crisis, what is already possible, and invited many more to make time to imagine the future otherwise. You can access AAS resources here, find its library here, and support its work into the future here.

Accessibility

We want to remove barriers to participation in these events and are happy to make adjustments to prevent people from being excluded. Please inform us of accessibility requirements during the registration process or get in touch by email if you would like to provide more information or ask any questions. Please contact [email protected] at least one week before the event. Please see our Safe Working Spaces Statement for more information.

If you have any accessibility needs or questions do get in touch at [email protected]