You can see this in energy prices too. When people feel worse off, votes shift and energy bills are one of the most emotionally and economically charged drivers of that. Retrofit is political as much as climate, unfortunately.
#RetrofitFirst #EnergySecurity #CostOfLiving #PoliticalEconomy
And quelle surprise!
There was no mention in #Budget2025 of equalising the VAT regime for #RetrofitFirst and restoration projects and new builds.
Another year of failure for the heritage sector which will cost us characterful historic buildings which could have been given a sustainable future.
If #HeritageWorld (including archaeology) could get its act together there would be a concerted public campaign to end the blatent cultural and environmental injustice and outrage that planet friendly lower carbon repair, restoration & #RetrofitFirst attracts VAT where demolish and newbuild doesn't.
#RetrofitFirst News
£8.7m of levelling up money will see Plymouth's G2 former civic centre become a learning & skills hub.
About the project, BDP architect director Mark Baund said:
“Adaptive reuse has the ability to restore purpose and relevance to buildings that have shaped a city’s identity."
#RetrofitFirst Not: News
"This isn't regeneration, this is obliteration,"
Burt McNeil, Chair, Leicester Civic Society.
The CBA is one of the groups to protest after facadism and (quellle suprise) 18 story towers are set to replace historic Leicester textile factory.
When considering existing assets, demolition should never be the default. Policy must require justification for taking a building down. From an embodied carbon perspective, keeping buildings in use is almost always the lower-carbon choice.
#CircularEconomy #RetrofitFirst #NetZeroCarbon #policy
80% of 2050’s building stock already exists. Retrofitting and reusing what’s here is the biggest carbon saving we can make, now! Circular design is future-proof business: lower costs, reduced risks, and resilient assets.
#circulareconomy #reuse #netzerocarbon #retrofitfirst
#RetrofitFirst Works
Architects Fathom have completed the conversion of four linked Victorian warehouses in a conservation area in Clerkenwell on the edge of the City of London and not a tower in sight...
Planning News
Owners apply to demolish Grade B listed Caerlee Mill at Innerleithen in the Borders after claim cost to put one of Scotland's earliest industrial buildings back into use exceeds allocated budget.
#RetrofitFirst (But not if you get the numbers wrong)
Much easier than building new homes – let’s use the 1M+ empty properties we already have! Less planning, lower costs, quicker results. Retrofitting revitalises communities, cuts emissions, and protects the green belt.
#RetrofitFirst #UKHousing
GPT Icon
We don’t need to keep building new homes – we need to use the 1M+ empty properties we already have. Retrofitting can revitalise communities, cut emissions, and protect the green belt.
#RetrofitFirst #UKHousing
New planning policy guidance for the City of London adopts a #RetrofitFirst approach, as well as setting other environmentally sustainable goals for developers.
"It's not just Carbon.
It's embodied M&S Carbon."
A major blow against the principle of #RetrofitFirst as Angela Rayner greenlights the demolition and rebuild of the Oxford St M&S.
#Glasgow #Southside has lost more #ArtDeco buildings & shopfronts than it's retained...but the survivors are beacons for communities & passers-by. Some like the streamline international style Luma Light Bulb Factory have been sustainably adapted #adaptivereuse #retrofitfirst bsky.app/profile/this...
As well as a huge swathe of central #Glasgow Southside cinemas ~ #ArtDeco, earlier & later styles ~ @scottishcinemas.org gave a much longer look back at ABC / Regal on Sauchiehall St, demolition finishing this week 😢 #RetrofitFirst www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/glasgow/abcr... bsky.app/profile/bric...
Local Planning, National Issue
A #RetrofitFirst row at Newton Abbot in Devon as council stages a crunch vote on Tuesday [30 July 2024], which could seal the fate of the Bradley Lane Mills site, which faces demolition.
Historic England argue demolition would be a "missed opportunity."
A local campaign backed by the Twentieth Century Society, historian Carl Chinn & TV presenter Kevin McCloud among others, is to seek a Judicial Review of Birmingham council's decision to allow the demolition of the brutalist Ringway Center. #RetrofitFirst
With many developers still insisting on demolish and rebuild in our changing city centres, there are an increasing number of #RetrofitFirst projects showing there are alternatives.
Here a former John Lewis department store in Middlesborough may become a venue for the creative and performing arts.
Duncan Wilson of Historic England makes a good case for #RetrofitFirst over demolish to rebuild & the need to develop a skilled work force, but why hide the 20% cost advantage new builds have over renovation though zero VAT rating behind the phrase "market economics"?
It is GOVUK's political choice.
In my experience following planning cases COIL's are a particular problem with modern and industrial buildings where the heritage sector is still evolving its assessments of significance.
It is arguable that in principal, and especially in these days of #RetrofitFirst, they have no place.
Barely thirty years old, the Architects Journal looks at the debate around the changing demands on the iconic towers of Canary Wharf & proposals to #RetrofitFirst converting an office space monoculture to mixed use supporting "residential units, offices, a hotel and space for emerging industries".
In another London planning story Marks and Spencer have been given permission to appeal Communities Secretary Michael Gove's decision to block the redevelopment of the company's flagship Oxford Street store.
The plan is at the heart of a #RetrofitFirst row & is now something of a test case.
