Towards 'Proactive' Retrofitting: Developing a Regenerative Framework for Building Retrofits

Regenerative design and development within the built environment arises from the need totransition from the current fragmented sustainability approaches of doing less harm, towardsa whole system that actively co-evolves with the living world around us. This idea is startingto become well established in new developments, but this research will explore howregenerative concepts can be applied specifically to existing buildings. An innovativeregenerative framework for building retrofits is developed which primarily involves proposinga proactive retrofit approach to shift the way designers think and act towards buildinginterventions. A proactive retrofit process model is then developed to establish regenerativecore values, proactive retrofit goals and proactive retrofit design principles to enable theimprovement and ongoing evolution of an existing building and its place. A set of keyproactive retrofit design principles are also developed to provide methodological guidancefor how an existing building can interact with and meaningfully add value to its largersystems. This research seeks to fill the knowledge gap of how we can transition away frombuilding retrofit design approaches deeply-rooted in a mechanistic worldview towards anapproach which discovers the potential of an existing building to be a regenerative force forits larger systems