Old Materials, New Climate - Traditional Building Materials in a Changing World

An accessible guidebook to understanding historic materials – how they were traditionally made, how they survived the test of time, and how changes in climate are now impacting materials in new ways. Protecting historic buildings from a rapidly changing and unpredictable climate requires an understanding of how climate affects weather and how weather affects the durability of the most widely used traditional materials – wood, adobe, brick, lime, concrete, metal, and paint. This resource examines how gradual and dramatic changes in climate threaten to accelerate normal weathering and presents strategies to safeguard historic materials for future generations.