Building Reuse

The Environmental Value of Building Reuse

A report produced by the Preservation Green Lab of the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the potential environmental benefit of building reuse.

This groundbreaking study, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse, concludes that, when comparing buildings of equivalent size and function, building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction. -- National trust for Historic Preservation

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Source: architectural-review.com

Park Hill, Sheffield, UK, 1960 designed by Sheffield’s City Architect’s Office as run by J Lewis Womersley, 2011 revovated by Urban Splash

From a building conservation point of view too, much has changed, and we may yet regret the lost authenticity, but Park Hill is better preserved in an altered state than not at all, and for the sake of its inhabitants’ memories as well as for its architecture. -- Architectural Review

Source: architectural-review.com

Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, Paris, France, 1961 designed by Raymond Lopez , 2011 revovated by Frédéric Druot and Lacaton & Vassal 

Over the past two decades, demolition has often been the preferred option, on ideological and economic grounds. On the one hand, the image of high-rise estates was held to be irredeemably tarnished, whereas on the other it was thought that demolition/reconstruction was the cheaper and easier option, given that 1960s norms of energy consumption and thermal performance were so far behind today’s standards.

In the revamped tower there are now seven different apartment types, ranging from one to seven rooms, and the total number of dwellings has risen to 100 flats.  This increase was made possible by the architects’ major intervention, extending the tower on all four sides through the addition of self-supporting steel structures. -- Architectural Review

Source: KAA Design Group archdaily.com

Latitude 33, Marina del Rey, California, USA designed by KAA Design Group

Latitude 33, a luxurious collection of beach-side homes ranging from townhouses, penthouses, and single floor units, was partially designed from a forty year-old, nine-storey “eye sore for the neighborhood” that was once an office building. -- ArchDaily