Founding Partner, Sr. Conservation Architect & Urbanist at TRACE architectures inc.
Intensification (for example for needed housing) via building reuse (i.e. deep green rehab, retrofit, addition) are Climate Actions that improve a city's sense of place at the same time. Win-win-win! Now, lets do it....ramp it up, Canada!
This is an inspiring example of urban intensification that has reused 80% of the existing structure. Wellington House is a £12 million mixed-use, commercial-led refurbishment project located on Wimbledon Hill in south London. The refurbishment has delivered greater density on a sustainable site with an attractive design that has far more curb appeal. There are literally 1000’s of similar buildings in towns and cities across the UK that would really benefit from a makeover like this. We could deliver more density in sustainable locations by repurposing and extending existing structures whilst redesigning the elevations to be much more attractive. This is a lovely example and is a model of sustainable urban development that I would like to see much more of. Wellington House was designed by London-based MATT Architecture (nothing to do with me!).