Mayo Heritage Day workshop to link traditional building crafts with green transition

Ballina will host a workshop next week on how traditional building skills can drive climate action.

ACT (Accelerating Change Together) will run "Traditional Skills for a Circular Future" during Heritage Day on Wednesday next, July 15.

The event runs from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. at the Innovation Quarter (Block A), in Ballina's former military barracks.

Heritage mason Tom Pollard and architect Kevin Loftus will lead the session. They will explore how traditional repair methods and modern circular design can work together to protect both local heritage and the environment.

The workshop will go beyond conventional building approaches that simply aim to reduce damage. Instead, organisers say it will show how heritage crafts and circular design can actively restore and improve the built environment.

Participants will learn how traditional stonemasonry, hot-mix lime mortars and dry-stone techniques keep older buildings breathable and durable, preventing unnecessary demolition.

Loftus, Director and Design Lead at ACT, said traditional buildings were built to last using local materials.

"Traditional buildings were inherently circular, built from local materials to be repaired, altered and eventually reused," he said.

"By merging these stone and lime crafts with modern modular methods, we stop treating old structures as liabilities or waste.

Instead, reusing them protects their historic character and delivers a far better environmental outcome than extracting new natural resources."

The three-hour session is aimed at architects, designers, local authority officials, building contractors and property owners.

Pollard and Loftus will walk attendees through the regulatory and financial steps involved in building reuse, with particular focus on securing the Vacant and Derelict Property Refurbishment Grant.

They will also draw on real examples, including the Scotch House project, to explain how reused materials can be sourced and certified for use in modern construction.

The event carries 3.0 Structured CPD points and is open to professionals, local authority officials and property owners.

It takes place at Innovation Quarter, Block A, Ballina, F26 A0FD.

A moderated Q&A session will close the workshop, giving attendees the chance to raise practical on-site challenges and discuss how to scale regenerative design in everyday professional practice.

The initiative is supported by The Heritage Council, the RIAI CPD Network, the Ballina Salmon Festival and the Ballina Chamber.