Retrofit Centre for Traditional Buildings to Become Premiere Heritage Hub

A new Scottish Retrofit Centre for Traditional Buildings is to become part of Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills in Camelon, Falkirk.

The new Retrofit Centre will become the premiere hub for retrofit heritage skills and science while supporting Scotland in tackling the climate emergency.

Supported by £1m of funding, the retrofit facility will put heritage science and research at the heart of its approach to developing bespoke solutions required for the decarbonization and conservation of the historic environment.

The centre will become a key facility for climate heritage science, housing training, research and specialist equipment.

Retrofit to Net Zero

It will support the retrofit of Scotland’s traditional buildings, crucial to achieving national net zero targets. A 2024 audit of Scotland’s historic environment estimated that almost 500,000 buildings in Scotland are of traditional construction, including around 18% of homes, 24% of offices, 33% of shops and 41% of public buildings.

Scotland’s Canal and Traditional Skills project sees the former AG Barr Irn Bru factory in Camelon, Falkirk, transformed into a new centre to bring heritage knowledge and skills together and support specialist skills. Works at the centre are currently gathering momentum as major internal and external construction progresses.

The Retrofit Centre will deliver UK-wide benefits as an innovative knowledge transfer space, a research workshop, a retrofit materials library, and a heritage science laboratory.

Knowledge Transfer

Colin Tennant, Head of Technical Conservation at HES, said: “We are delighted to include the Retrofit Centre facility within the new national centre. Expanding the scope of what the centre has to offer means that we are creating a central resource that will ensure that everything that makes up our built heritage – our castles, aqueducts, forts, canals and traditional buildings — continues to be protected and cared for.

“The Retrofit Centre will deliver UK-wide benefits as an innovative knowledge transfer space, a research workshop, a retrofit materials library, and a heritage science laboratory. The new location will allow the centre to provide more training and practice more heritage science research, all while adding to the dynamic collaborative space that will make up Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills.”

The public can see some of the cutting-edge heritage science equipment to be used in the Retrofit Centre when the Engine Shed in Stirling opens its doors on 26-27 September. Visitors will also be able to learn more about the wider project and the future opportunities the centre of excellence will create for heritage skills, volunteering and learning.

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