11.-13.02.2013 | Riga | Latvia

Transnational Co2olBricks Project Partner Meeting at Riga Town Hall

In February the Co2olBricks partners and the steering committee members met in Riga to talk about the first draft of the joint declaration – which will sum up the main findings of the project work and recommendations –, the results of project achieved so far and the steps until the end of project. Therefore the three days of the meeting were focused on the outputs of every main work package (political development, technical solutions and education) and the combination and implementation of the results.

The first day started at the office of the chief architect of Riga with a presentation about the history and way of heritage preservation in Riga and went on with the steering committee meeting at the town hall. Afterwards the first workshop about the joint declaration took place for all project partners. The day was closed with a get-together and dinner at the world heritage Warehouse District.

The second day was reserved for the work package “Technical Solutions”. Every member was showing a short report about the current state of the pilot project or best practice examples or the research to all project partners. It was followed by a short introduction about the subject matter for the group discussions. Afterwards the participants were split into 4 smaller groups who each worked on answering the following questions in a wide-ranged manner:

• Were energy audits conducted? What were the reasons for decision?
• What laws, norms or funding schemes were applicable for the projects?
• Did the development plans (e.g. climate protection plans, city development plans, building plans) help or hinder the implementation of the projects?
• Are enough technologies and materials certified for the application for energy efficiency in historical buildings? Do we need more research and/or information?
• Was it difficult to find the well enough qualified planners and craftsmen? And if it was a problem: How did you solve it?

In the afternoon a bus excursion through Riga guided by the former chief heritage preserver of Riga has given some insights into the history of the city and the Latvian way of monument preservation. The following visit of the pilot project and the world heritage Warehouse District was closed by a presentation and discussion about that area. At the end of the day all participants were invited to an official dinner at the town hall of Riga.

The third and last day started with the presentations of the results of the 4 workshop groups. The main topic has been about learning from the pilot projects, best practice examples, researches and proposed measures. The implementation of that lessons learnt was afterwards also one part of the reports of the results so far of the work packages “Political Development” and “Education” and consisted in the afternoon of a very fruitful discussion about the joint declaration part 2.