Wednesday 5 August 2020

‘To fight climate change – don't demolish old buildings’

To fight climate change, old buildings should be upgraded, not demolished – urges RetroFirst, a campaign by the Architects’ Journal supported by "more than 100 architecture practices, organisations and individuals".



It was once thought better for the climate to demolish old energy-hungry buildings and build well-insulated replacements. This view is now regarded as mistaken, given how much carbon is emitted by creating the cement, bricks and steel for new buildings:
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) estimates that 35% of the lifecycle carbon from a typical office development is emitted before the building is even opened. It says the figure for residential premises is 51%.
These calculations suggest it will be decades before some new buildings pay back their carbon debt by saving more emissions than they created – and these are decades when carbon must be sharply reduced.


As we posted, "Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse!"

In the UK, the construction industry accounts for 60% of all materials used, while creating a third of all waste and generating 45% of all CO2 emissions in the process. It is a greedy, profligate and polluting monster, gobbling up resources and spitting out the remains in intractable lumps. On our current course, we are set to triple material extraction in 30 years, and triple waste production by 2100. If we stand any chance of averting climate catastrophe, we must start with buildings – and stop conceiving them in the same way we have for centuries.
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