The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
High-rise flats: spruce them up or tear them down?
Has the climate emergency tipped the balance in favour of upgrading rather than demolishing the UK’s ageing tower blocks? Ella Jessel reports
RetroFirst
RetroFirst is an AJ campaign to prioritise retrofit over demolition and rebuild. Hundreds of architecture practices, organisations and individuals have declared their support for our campaign
Fosters, Grimshaw and Heatherwick join AJ RetroFirst campaign
Foster + Partners, Grimshaw and Heatherwick Studios are among the latest names to throw their weight behind the AJ RetroFirst campaign
Coffey Architects designs Clerkenwell flat as ‘solid piece of joinery’
The space has a stripped-back aesthetic, highlighting historical features reminiscent of the building’s previous use as a school
New practice Connolly Wellingham: ‘We are thinking about never doing a new-build project’
The latest in a series of practice profiles looking at architects who have recently decided to go it alone
‘The greenest building is the one that already exists’
Robert Adam looks at recent studies and publications that make the case for reusing and upgrading existing buildings, rather than demolishing and replacing
Big industry names back AJ’s RetroFirst campaign
The RIBA, UK Green Building Council and TCPA among the latest signatories to come on board
Introducing RetroFirst: a new AJ campaign championing reuse in the built environment
Amid the escalating climate crisis, Will Hurst introduces the AJ’s campaign to prioritise retrofitting existing buildings over demolition and rebuild
Join our RetroFirst campaign to make retrofit the default choice
With construction gobbling up resources at a phenomenal rate, retrofitting existing buildings needs to become the default option, writes Emily Booth