Building activities can be classified as either new build or refurbishment. New build as it is known is applied to any work that is starting from scratch. Refurbishment in one broad definition is any work undertaken on an existing building. According to Riley and Cotgrave (2005, p.6) refurbishment can be defined as:
“Extending the useful life of existing buildings through the adaptation of their basic forms to provide a new or updated version of the original structure”
Refurbishment schemes can take many forms and may be undertaken for a variety of reasons. Refurbishment can therefore be taken to mean that the existing building is not usable in its present from or state. A building could have been very well maintained but not meet the performance criteria of the existing or planned occupier or very little maintenance may have been undertaken (Mulligan and Steemers, 2002).
Figure 4.2a below illustrates where the refurbishment phase of a building fits into the whole life cycle of the building. The diagram does not show a specific time when refurbishment is required, as this may depend on the level of maintenance that has been undertaken during the occupation of the building; nor does it give actual values of performance requirement (Riley and Cotgrave, 2005).
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Figure 4.2 The life cycle of buildings: (a) excluding climate change impacts (b) including climate change impacts
Source: (Riley and Cotgrave, 2005)
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However, Mulligan and Steemers (2002) suggest that cycles of refurbishment range typically between 15-50 years for non structural building fabric (roof, wall cladding, windows, joinery and insulation) when upgraded to higher performance levels and between 7-15 years for systems and appliances which could enable improved controls and environmental performance.
It is likely that climate change and its thermal discomfort consequences in naturally ventilated buildings will shorten the useful lifetime of these buildings and reduce their performance before any required refurbishment will be undertaken to improve such performance (Figure 4.2b).
The amount of work that is required to achieve the above definition of refurbishment will vary on different projects, and generally depends on many factors such as (Riley and Cotgrave, 2005):
• The state and condition of the existing building;
• The size and form of the existing building;
• The location of the building;
• The intended use of the building;
• The amount of work required for the existing building to comply with the current building regulations;
• Whether the building is listed either wholly or partly;
• Adequate funding being available; and
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• Whether the work can be carried out safely.
There are many terms that are usually used instead of or in conjunction with refurbishment (Riley and Cotgrave, 2005):
• Conversion implies that the main use of the building will be altered, but that the main structure will not be changed;
• Renovation and Restoration consists of renewal and repair only, and simply addresses dilapidations to avoid further degradation of the building;
• Retrofit means fitting new and more modern systems into an existing building.
The term is commonly associated with building services because a common phenomena in buildings is that the life of the building structure and fabric is considerably longer than that of the installed services.
From the above definitions it can be seen that refurbishment could include all of these elements on either a large or a small scale.
Refurbishment of HE buildings primarily concerns physical (envelope such as walls, windows, doors) and functional building components (e.g. mechanical and electrical equipments), but should also consider several topics such as energy consumption, pollutant emission, and operational waste reduction as well as air quality and spatial comfort (Genre et al., 2000). Refurbishment can reduce energy consumption and improve the indoor climate through better control of heating and improved building insulation.
While the fact that the cost of refurbishing some HE buildings would be about 80 % of the cost of new building, refurbishment can be more environmentally friendly than demolishing
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and replacing old buildings (AUDE, 2008). This has been supported by a recent study undertaken by AUDE which investigated HE buildings. Results from this study suggest that refurbished buildings have smaller embodied environmental impacts than buildings that are demolished and rebuilt (AUDE, 2008). Table 4.1 lists the advantages of refurbishment compared with demolition and new build. The listing of a building by regulators when viewed in conjunction with programme requirements can prevent any serious consideration of demolition and replacement: planning approval might be denied; an unacceptable delay when planning approval is sought; or planning approval may be granted with onerous conditions.
Table 4.1 The advantage of refurbishment compared with demolition and new build Source: (Anon, 2005)
Shorter Timescales The work involved in refurbishment is normally less than that needed for demolition and new construction. There are time savings too at the pre-contract design and planning stages.
Economic Advantages The cost of refurbishment and reusing existing buildings is generally considerably less than the cost of demolition and new construction. These advantages have been categorised by the shorter contract duration which reduces the effects of inflation on building costs, and the shorter development period reduces the cost of financing the scheme.
Architectural Advantages There are often architectural advantages in keeping older and historic educational buildings to satisfy heritage conservation and the perception that new buildings can in no way duplicate the structural and unique architectural qualities of the old.
Environmental Advantages Refurbishment can reduce energy consumption and CO2
emissions through recycling, re-using existing sources, and avoid the need to extract new materials and convert them into a replacement building. Refurbishment is significantly less intrusive and disruptive of the environment.
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The consequences of listing, therefore, can justify focusing on the potential of refurbishment option rather than demolition and replacement. Similarly, where planning restrictions are unlikely to allow an increased footprint area or restrict the height of a new development, it can result in there being no net gain in accommodation space when demolition and re-building is considered. Consequently, it is often more sustainable to refurbish and re-use existing buildings than to demolish and build anew (BRE, 2002; AUDE, 2008).
There is a tendency nowadays within the HE sector to choose refurbishment over demolition and new build due to recognition of the advantages outlined above. Considerable sums of money are currently being spent on refurbishing parts of the HEI estate. Examples include:
East Anglia has spent £8.6 million refurbishing its Ziggurat residences designed by Sir Denys Lasdun (Stothart, 2008), and the refurbishment of Muirhead Tower at the University of Birmingham which was completed in 2009 was estimated to have cost more than £25 million (Associated Architects, 2007). Clearly, it is essential to ensure such capital expenditure contributes to achieving the sustainable development agenda.