03.12.2013 | Hamburg | Germany

The End is the Beginning - Speeches, Presentations and Joint Declaration at „Result Conference“

On December 3rd 2013, more than 200 architects, planners, conservation specialists, representatives from administrations and institutions and other experts met in Hamburg for the “Co2olBricks Results and Joint Declaration Signing Conference”. Jan Gerbitz, host for the day, reminded the participants, that nearly 3 years ago, in April 2011, the Co2olBricks Kick Off Conference was held in Hamburg as well. Back then in the historic brick building of the Chamber of Crafts, built by famous Hamburg Chief Building Director Fritz Schumacher from 1912 to 1917, in the beginning of December 2013 at the Wilhelmsburg Community Center, built with bricks as well, but in 1985. He pointed out that the title of the conference is not “Final Conference” because the way to make historic buildings more energy efficient has just started. Accordingly, the conference presented not only results and included speeches by external observers and facilitators but was finalised with the signing of the Co2olBricks Joint Declaration with common recommendations of the project to express that there are still a lot more topics to work on.

The conference started with a speech of Mr. Stefan Herms, Director General for International Affairs at the Hamburg State Chancellery about the opportunities and benefits of transnational cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region and the value of Interreg Funding.

Mr. Andreas Kellner, Head of the Hamburg Heritage Department told the audience about the reasons to start the project and to work together in the field of energy efficiency in historic, especially brick buildings, in the Baltic Sea Region and some common results as well as some personal findings and recommendations. The presentation of project results started with Mr. Anders Brüel from Realdania Byb A/S about the needs for special solutions and early cooperation between house owners, investors, planners, architects and officials from the heritage department to renovate Fästningens Materialgard in Copenhagen.

Ms. Prof. Dagnija Blumberga of the Technical University in Riga, Latvia presented the renovation concept and the testing of different insulation materials at the future Information Center of the World Heritage Site “Spikeri” in Riga.

Mr. Tommi Lindh, Director of the Alvar Aalto Foundation & Museum and Member of the Co2olBricks Steering Committee pointed out, that even the best technical solution has to be used in a proper and correct way, so “Education is the Key!”

Two researches of internal insulation in different climates – one in the “Old School Building” in Kohtla-Järve, one at the residential building at Passierzettel in Hamburg were presented by Ms. Kadi Varda of the Information Centre for Sustainable Renovation SRIK in Tallinn in Estonia.

Last speaker was the former Estonian Foreign Minister and Honorary Chairman of the Estonian Heritage Society Mr. Trivimi Velliste with an overview of developments of energy efficiency in historic buildings in Estonia and the Baltic States as an example of the progress which was made during the last three years.

The last part of the conference was dedicated to the Joint Declaration. Mr. Jan Prahm, Co2olBricks Project Coordinator presented the Policy Paper and the Joint Declaration being a focal point and a distillate of all activities during the projects period.

Afterwards, the Declaration was signed by official representatives of all Co2olBricks Project Partners.

The conference ended with a reception in the foyer of the venue.
In the evening, all project partners joined for dinner at the Landungsbrücken, the historic ship terminal of Hamburg.