Description
Book Synopsis
This radical book aims to inject new insight and urgency into the discourse on the retrofitting of commercial and residential buildings in the face of the climate emergency. It is about the why, how and who should take the lead in revolutionising buildings in the face of serious climate and social change.
Buildings contribute very significantly to the output of carbon, particularly in developed countries where the stock is old, but it is neither feasible nor desirable to demolish them all and start again! If existing buildings cannot in be replaced in the short-term by new zero carbon stock, retrofitting and adaptation of the existing building stock is critical and urgent. This book explains why and how the improvement of buildings requires a complex, holistic approach that brings all stakeholders together with respect and understanding. Yet to do this against a limited time frame is challenging. The book analyses what must be done, explores how it could be achieved and sets o
Trade Review
"We have needed this book for many years but the Climate Emergency and the growing popular unrest among students and young professionals makes this comprehensive approach a must-read book for the whole industry." - Robin Nicholson CBE, RIBA, Hon FIStructE, Hon FCIBSE, Convenor of the Edge and a long-standing Partner of Cullinan Studio
"Across the globe, climate emergency declarations cover more than 1bn people in 2000 jurisdictions and local governments. Many of these overlay our urban areas where the built environment is an important contributor to carbon emissions. Retrofitting the 70% of buildings that will still be here in 2050 is crucial to tackling the climate emergency, creating a resilient built environment, and bending the curve to keep temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees. This impressive, international, multi-scale and interdisciplinary-based book shows how the many and varied buildings that make up the built environment can be made more energy, waste, and water efficient and tackles vitally important questions: the ‘how’, the ‘what’, and the ‘why’ of retrofitting. The authors have written an eloquent and authoritative guide to these fundamental issues, and this is underpinned by a passionate manifesto, or call to arms, for professionals of all disciplines to tackle these issues right now and at scale. Finally, the book is an especially poignant testament to the late Sarah Sayce’s excellent and well-respected work in this field." - Professor Timothy J. Dixon, School of the Built Environment, University of Reading
"We have needed this book for many years but the Climate Emergency and the growing popular unrest among students and young professionals makes this comprehensive approach a must-read book for the whole industry." - Robin Nicholson CBE, RIBA, Hon FIStructE, Hon FCIBSE, Convenor of the Edge and a long-standing Partner of Cullinan Studio
"Across the globe, climate emergency declarations cover more than 1 billion people in 2000 jurisdictions and local governments. Many of these overlay our urban areas where the built environment is an important contributor to carbon emissions. Retrofitting the 70% of buildings that will still be here in 2050 is crucial to tackling the climate emergency, creating a resilient built environment, and bending the curve to keep temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees. This impressive, international, multi-scale and interdisciplinary-based book shows how the many and varied buildings that make up the built environment can be made more energy, waste, and water efficient and tackles vitally important questions: the ‘how’, the ‘what’, and the ‘why’ of retrofitting. The authors have written an eloquent and authoritative guide to these fundamental issues, and this is underpinned by a passionate manifesto, or call to arms, for professionals of all disciplines to tackle these issues right now and at scale. Finally, the book is an especially poignant testament to the late Sarah Sayce’s excellent and well-respected work in this field." - Professor Timothy J. Dixon, School of the Built Environment, University of Reading
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Why: Challenge and a need to change 1. The Climate Crisis: why it matters for the built environment 2. The philosophy and definition of retrofitting for resilience 3. An inadequate building stock 4. Understanding Vacancy in the office stock Part 2: The What: Exploring solutions 5. A governance response: from coercion to persuasion to embracing diversity? 6. Financing Retrofits 7. Low Tech vs High Technological solutions for a pandemic adaptable Society 8. Repurposing and adaptation 9. Heritage: learning from and preserving the past Part 3: Conclusions, the future, and a manifesto for Change 10. Conclusions and a Manifesto to Retrofit for the Future
