With the increasing urgency surrounding the climate emergency we should all be looking for ways to try and reduce our carbon footprints or mitigate some of the climate impacts of our practice as an architect. The recent controversies surrounding Pilbrow & Partners’ proposals for the M&S flagship store on Oxford Street call to mind other recent debates around replacing older buildings. 

While in some cases the carbon efficiencies of a well detailed and serviced new-build can, in the long term, mean an overall carbon saving over retrofitting an existing building, in the vast majority of cases demolishing an existing building and replacing it will lead to higher carbon costs.

…