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The third floor of the Museum of �鶹ӰԺ was exceptionally lively for a Thursday evening in late September. Guests filled the galleries, where colorful hues and intricate floral patterns from hand-painted artifacts adorned the walls. Spicy aromas of chai tea wafted through the museum’s halls, mingling with the hum of footsteps and conversation. 

The Restoration, Salvation and Climate Adaptation symposium drew a crowd of over 80 academic researchers, design professionals, city leadership and Environmental Design community members to the museum. The symposium took place in conjunction with Elemental: Tajik Arts, a public exhibition that celebrates the work of 16 ENVD students who spent much of their summer speckled with paint and perched high on scaffolding as they meticulously restored the exterior west face of the Dushanbe Teahouse.

“The work was a bit exhausting and sometimes physically hurting for them. They have to hold postures with their hands or with their bodies on the floor,” Associate Teaching Professor Azza Kamal described of the students’ summer work. “To be honest, it was nothing close to what you have seen in the symposium, they were very articulate, well dressed, which I think is a good takeaway about the good work it takes also to deliver.”  

In the second iteration of the special topics course, History and Historiography of Environmental Design: Restoring the Dushanbe Teahouse, students explored the intersection of cultural heritage, restoration and sustainability within the context of Central Asian culture and architecture. Visiting Researcher Maruf Mirakhmatov, a renowned Tajik artist and grandson of the artisan who helped build the Teahouse, returned to �鶹ӰԺ to co-teach the course with Kamal and facilitate the restoration.  

While similar in scope to the course’s previous rendition, led in 2018 by Associate Professor Shawhin Roudbari and Nate Jones, ENVD Assistant Director of Advising & Professional Development, Kamal aimed to expand the focus this year to cover the pressing issues of climate change and resilience. “Restoration is part of climate adaptation. Preserving buildings saves a lot from the landfill and deconstruction minimizes emissions,” she noted.

Historic preservation is nothing new to Kamal. Her academic studies, professional experience and research pursuits have taken her from the Middle Age-era craft districts of Cairo to the historic neighborhoods of modern-day San Antonio. As one of eleven commissioners in San Antonio, her role involved collaborating with the Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) and the community to preserve historic and culturally significant areas while allowing for mindful development.

“What we need to preserve matters and how we keep the materials matters. Some of the these buildings are constructed with much better quality materials with longer life span than the standard building materials now,” she shared.

Kamal pointed out that despite the importance of restoring buildings, especially when they hold cultural significance, such as the Teahouse, historic buildings are not always the most ecologically fit. They rarely meet modern green building standards such as energy efficiency, water use and indoor air quality. 

However, with the current national discourse to interconnect preservation with climate adaptation strategies, there is a hope that with careful retrofits, municipalities could improve the performance of historic structures and landmarks, so they can be climate-ready. 

Last month’s symposium brought together a multidisciplinary panel of academics, artists and city officials to discuss these efforts. According to the night’s keynote speaker, Distinguished Professor of architecture and historic preservation at Roger Williams University, Hasan-Uddin Khan, it all comes down to stewardship. 

Stephanie Phillips, a circular economy senior manager for San Antonio’s OHP and one of the night’s panelists, agreed. “The stewardship of the built and living heritage exists in the same vein as stewardship of the natural environment,” she commented. 

Phillips’ work deals primarily with deconstructing aging buildings at the end of their life spans. This slower but more intentional process produces less waste and emissions than machine-heavy demolition and generates more jobs in skilled labor. Panelist Jonathan Koehn, the director of �鶹ӰԺ’s Climate Initiatives Department, spoke about deconstruction work being done locally, including the recent deconstruction of a �鶹ӰԺ community hospital where . 

In his keynote presentation, however, Khan warned that part of our identity is lost when we lose historic buildings, even in deconstruction. He spoke of the importance of upholding the culture of restoring buildings using traditional techniques, something the ENVD students were able to experience this summer while suspended up on scaffolding.

The symposium underscored the importance of balancing cultural heritage with sustainability and resilience, reminding attendees that restoration is not just about preserving the past but adapting it for the future. 

“We can learn from the past, but we need to look forward,” Khan stated in his final remarks. “At the end of the day, architecture isn’t about buildings, it’s about people.”