Building retrofit offers significant potential to extend the commercial lifespan of an existing building, often proving far more cost-effective than demolishing and reconstructing.

Retrofit and adaptation also mean that a community benefits from continuity and the retention of buildings that contribute to a place’s identity. With the built environment industry needing to make a radical shift towards more sustainable use of materials and energy, building retrofit is becoming more relevant and vital every year.

Given that 87% of today's buildings will still be occupied in 2050, transform-and-reuse will become central to how we decarbonise the built environment. Our experience spans over 70 years and thousands of reuse projects. 

How we can help:

Adaptive reuse

The needs of buildings are likely to change significantly over their lifespans.

Adaptive reuse

Our building retrofit team helps clients to explore what their emerging needs mean for the structure and services that the building should offer.

Procuratie Vecchie

In Venice, the famed Piazza San Marco has welcomed the restoration of the Procuratie Vecchie. Arup’s data-driven modelling work enabled our engineers to get an accurate assessment of this very complex building at speed, ensuring that a series of considered interventions and minimal retrofitting measures future-proof this iconic place.

Adaptive reuse is a way of breathing new life into existing buildings, ensuring they align with current needs, are well used and are financially successful. However, key to adaptive reuse is ensuring flexibility within the design for future trends, in an efficient manner.

Our building retrofit team helps clients to explore what their emerging needs mean for the structure and services that the building should offer. We also help clients to navigate the constraints of historic building adaptation, ensuring creativity is balanced with planning limits. 

Adaptive reuse is increasingly valuable for the reputational benefits it presents to owners, developers and tenants, as one of the most sustainable built environment investment choices.

Expansive reuse

When a building owner or tenant hits the limit of their current premises, building retrofit can play another role – finding creative ways to expand the asset’s usable space.

Expansive reuse

Expansive reuse increases the available area within a building, either through expansion of the building footprint, or reconfiguration of the existing spaces to make it more efficient

1 Triton Square

The recently completed 1 Triton Square in London demonstrates that refurbishment can be exciting, attractive and incredibly sustainable, if the client is prepared to adopt a different mindset and champion a progressive strategy.

Once more, the goal is to extend the existing structure’s lifespan and utility, without resorting to demolition or new building.

Expansive reuse increases the available area within a building, either through expansion of the building footprint, or reconfiguration of the existing spaces to make it more efficient. Our building retrofit team guides clients through this process from initial exploration of potential to the technical and design implications required to realise the gains.

Find out more about our work on 1 Triton Square

Proactive reuse

In a climate of high energy prices and an ever-important focus on reducing operational carbon emissions, it is imperative that existing buildings can be made to perform as efficiently as possible.

Proactive reuse

Proactive reuse aims to improve the performance of existing buildings.

The Grand Hotel Birmingham

The Grand Hotel in Birmingham had fallen in to an extensive state of disrepair. Before opting for demolition, Arup was asked to explore what might be possible. We discovered a way to deliver an award-winning conservation project at a fraction of the previous cost estimates.

Proactive reuse aims to improve the performance of existing buildings, for example through careful replacement of existing building services or upgrade to building fabric performance.

Proactive reuse enables a building owner to continually extend the lifespan and commercial relevance of their asset, staying one step ahead of market expectations and regulatory requirements.