As a building conservator I spend a good deal of my time trying to convince skeptical people to invest large sums of money in the preservation of broken places: typically abused and abandoned by those same communities I hope to enroll to save them. Frequently, something remarkable happens along the way: almost overnight the energy changes and we experience a shift from opposition, cynicism, and vandalism; to optimism, ownership and celebration. As we increasingly seek to address the impacts of climate change through the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of our existing buildings, we need to understand better this transformational process.

Presented by various experts on behalf of Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).