Transience is constitutive of heritage conservation: it is both the natural law that makes conservation necessary, and the reason we ascribe value to objects at all. Focusing on decay, destruction and demolition, we explore processes and experiences of transience and investigate modes of “doing loss“ (Reckwitz 2024) in heritage and conservation. Unlike other scholars, we do not evade confrontation with this uncomfortable reality by reframing loss as change, focusing on “resilience“, or adopting the perspectives of other-than-human actors having no heritage practice as such. Instead, we argue that direct, sustained confrontation with the inevitability of objects‘ disappearance as carriers of memory and meaning is necessary if we wish to grasp the uniquely human experience of heritage. Understanding decay, destruction and demolition can aid in accepting transience as the only morally conscionable attitude with which to approach the care of buildings -- and by extension the care of fellow human beings.

The presentation puts forward the development of the new theoretical concept of Green Restitution. Green Restitution aims to go beyond current conservation paradigms by recognizing the value of human-nature relationships that have been lost within urban heritage contexts. From this basis, new Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) or Nature based Solutions (NBS) can be proposed as acts of restitution to restore these lost relationships. In this way, Green Restitution aims to both reconnect historic urban environments with elements of their past which have been destroyed while also addressing present and future climate-change induced threats. It first introduces the theoretical basis for the new Green Restitution concept and then reviews several global examples to highlight the relevance and urgency of this work. Finally, it discusses how to activate the concept as a co-creation approach to support heritage communities reconnect with lost green heritage, confront climate change, and establish more sustainable futures.

Wukang Road has become a celebrated heritage corridor while also turning into a site where competing temporalities collide. Building from rhythmanalysis, this paper argues that resilience in urban heritage is not simply a matter of conserving fabric or absorbing shocks. It is a relational labour of timing, in which residents, workers, and institutions recalibrate routines, emotions, and regulatory tempos in response to accelerated tourism, aesthetic governance, and repeated infrastructural disruption. Drawing on empirical material from Wukang Road, the paper develops the notion of rhythmic governance as a way to make time governable within heritage management, and it foreground temporal justice as the ethical horizon of adaptation.

As Aotearoa advances greenhouse gas reduction targets, historic buildings present both challenges and opportunities for climate action. Although energy retrofitting of heritage buildings has been adopted internationally to reduce CO₂ emissions while retaining cultural value, New Zealand currently lacks tailored guidelines that address the social, cultural, environmental, and economic dimensions of such renovations. This presentation assesses the relevance of international retrofit frameworks to the New Zealand context through three hypothetical heritage building case studies in Wellington, supported by expert interviews with heritage and building performance practitioners.

Using a European holistic renovation methodology that incorporates multi-criteria assessment, risk analysis, and heritage impact evaluation, the findings highlight trade-offs among energy performance, cost, occupant comfort, carbon reduction, and heritage values. The research identifies adaptations needed for the unique cultural and climatic context of Aotearoa and proposes preliminary energy retrofit guidelines to support effective, culturally responsive heritage practice.