RetroFirst is about new build as well as refurbs

摘要

I've always been interested in heritage buildings, writes Saskia Lencer. My university days were spent drawing up historic building spaces and details and I learnt a lot: the generosity of their proportions; the lack of waste involved in their construction; the reduced toxicity of their materials; their propensity for circularity. But I was never interested in rigid restoration architecture. What excited me was the ability to translate the lessons of heritage buildings into contemporary architecture. If I were to put forward a definition of what retrofit should be today, it's that: a move away from the polarisation of restoration architecture versus new build.