India Golding is a doctoral researcher whose work explores retrofit decision-making in museums, with a particular focus on how historic cultural buildings can adapt to climate, conservation, operational, and sustainability challenges. Her research examines retrofit through a socio-technical lens, investigating how building systems, collections, visitors, and organisational priorities interact to shape the performance and resilience of museum environments.
With a background in building performance engineering and a strong interest in existing buildings, India's research combines stakeholder engagement with technical analysis to develop more holistic approaches to retrofit in the heritage sector. Her work draws on extensive interviews with museum professionals across conservation, curatorial, estates, visitor experience, projects, and senior leadership functions to better understand how retrofit decisions are made and evaluated within complex cultural institutions.
The Crow and the Pitcher – A pragmatic examination of organisational stakeholder perspectives in the retrofit of museums
Her doctoral research is centred on the Victoria and Albert Museum as a case study, exploring how retrofit interventions can balance collection care, visitor experience, operational requirements, accessibility, climate resilience, and carbon reduction. By bridging engineering methods with social science approaches, she aims to support more integrated and context-sensitive decision-making for the sustainable adaptation of heritage buildings.