Last week, Socius joined industry experts at RICS Headquarters to discuss the future of retrofit schemes. The big question of the day was; should development in the UK be regulated on the principle of “retrofit first” or “retrofit only”?
Kicking off the event with his keynote speech was Simon Rawlinson, head of strategic research and insight at Arcadis and chair of RICS’ knowledge and practice committee, who commented that: “The past, the future, the present of locations in London, Manchester, Stoke on Trent, Digbeth, would be different if we had to go down that retrofit route only.”
Our executive director, Olaide Oboh was joined on the RICS debate panel by Henrietta Billings, director of Save Britain’s Heritage, Mike Hussey, chief executive of developer Almacantar, Sunand Prasad, principal at Perkins & Will and chair of the UK Green Building Council and Basil Demeroutis, managing partner at Fore Partnership. The panel was chaired by Building editor Chloe McCulloch.
Speaking at the event, Olaide explained: “We are advocates or retrofit first, the creative and imaginative approach to how we repurpose buildings to give them a new lease of life is something we are fascinated and equally excited about.”
Read the full story at here.
