retrofit first

These approaches involve prioritising 'retrofit' over demolition and rebuild. Retrofit means 'providing something with a component or feature not fitted during manufacture or adding something that it did not have when first constructed'. These approaches can be low-carbon by helping reduce the energy a building uses during operation, and involving less embodied carbon than demolition and rebuild.

Flat House

Practice Architecture/ Material Cultures

References:

Hurst, Will. 2019. “Introducing RetroFirst: A New AJ Campaign Championing Reuse in the Built Environment,” The Architects’ Journal <https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/introducing-retrofirst-a-new-aj-campaign-championing-reuse-in-the-built-environment> [accessed 25 February 2024]

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Embodied carbon is 'the emissions from the construction materials, the building process, [...] as well as from deconstructing and disposing of [the building] at the end of it’s lifetime' (UCL).

The figures featured on this website were calculated using Structure Workshop's Carbon Calculator v4 (unless otherwise stated).

Each case study includes carbon equivalents - the equivalent barrels of oil burnt and the equivalent hectares of US forest growth per annum to offset it. The figures these are based on are available here.

Find the carbon database here. Submit a case study here.

In future the website aims to compare 'whole life carbon' - this is 'the carbon emissions resulting from the materials, construction and the use of a building over its entire life, including its demolition and disposal' (Greater London Authority, 2022).