How Adaptive Reuse Is Changing

‍Fifth Wall Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/fifthwall/is-adaptive-reuse-more-popular-than-new-construction 

Bloomberg interviewed Deborah Berke, an architect known for innovative renovations of older buildings and the Yale School of Architecture dean. Her firm has turned an auto repair garage into studios for high-end fashion photographers; an abandoned psychiatric hospital into a boutique hotel; and a former prison into offices for advocacy organizations.

In Berke’s new book, she outlines how adaptive reuse is changing.

• Recycling buildings is more common (and more publicized) than before—part of that is “more people now are identifying it as a business opportunity,” Berke tells Bloomberg. Last year the American Institute of Architects reported that reconstruction projects exceeded those for new construction—that’s a first in 20 years of AIA’s tracking and a good sign for the built environment.
• Forward-thinking perspective: Focusing on history can sometimes get in the way of experimental thinking, Berke explains. “When we call everything preservation we get very precious about it. We don’t let ourselves change it enough.” It’s more important to consider a building’s embodied carbon, than say old tile work. The bottom line: Buildings must be adapted for a clean energy and net zero future. 

Fifth Wall POV: “If we are going to reduce our carbon footprint at scale, we must look at buildings. Recycling buildings (reusing their materials, adapting a building to a different use) reduces the embodied carbon of the built environment,” Fifth Wall co-founder and managing partner Brendan Wallace writes. “Once a building is built, the embodied carbon is just that—embodied via the emissions associated with the steel, concrete, etc. The most sustainable building is the one already built.”

For more: When do buildings deserve a second chance?