The Best Restored and Sustainable Architecture

This piece came together as a reminder renovation and restoration services are a major segment of the AEC industry. Should we wish to support these projects achieve their ambitious sustainability goals, our understanding of the subject must be perceptive and comprehensive. Collected below are two examples which distinguish themselves in their sustainability features and design. 

One thing to note as the piece proceeds is how the intersection of new and old was approached in each project. If upgraded facilities alone aren't enough, often auxiliary modern structures are needed to complete the modern function of the building. Approaches to this problem normally follow one of three paths but architects play with the blurry edges of each all the time. The first approach can be a careful matching of old and new so that new additions blend seamlessly into the old. Secondly, one can have a more modern approach to the addition, but still include stylistic cues referencing the old. Lastly, some projects embraced radical departures from the original structure to maximize the contrast between old and new. Zaha Hadid's Antwerp port headquarters or the European Union's Europa headquarters in Brussels are examples of this approach. 

We begin with sustainable.to's restoration of Toronto's Daniels Residence. The original was a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada award winner in 1935, and the restoration repeated this feat in 2010, but this time in the sustainability category. Here the additions, one to the side and one on the roof, are very blocky, and while the design did specify excellent materials for use in each of them, the proportions are a bit conservative to really say the design strongly contrasts the different periods of the building in any sort of daring or creative way. And so while that is a bit of a miss, the project doggedly pursued the use of recycled and renewable materials at every scale, from paint primer to concrete, and this is where the expertise of a specialized sustainability focused firm pays for itself. Mistakes which might need to be fixed years later are avoided. The current owners, the Daniels, have filled the house with their collection of early 20th century furniture and art, which they are rightly very proud of, but I find it less interesting than the structure itself. Much of the furniture would be too delicate to flop down on when trying to relax at home. Following is a list of the house's sustainability features:

• Kitchen floors are from recycled walnut shells, bridging some of the qualities of concrete flooring and wood. 
• New louvers over all the windows to control solar energy. 
• Building enclosure upgraded with high-efficient insulation. 
• High-efficiency doors and windows.  
• Geoexchange heating and cooling system.
• Radiant-floor heating used throughout and separated into zones. 
• Rainwater collection. 

Laverstoke Mill is the home of Bombay Sapphire Gin, featuring a distillery and visitor facilities within the confines of a restored Victorian paper mill on the River Test in Hampshire, UK. Usually I'm not such a fan of brick but I warmed to this building's rustic aesthetic wrought from centuries of use. The interior design of the renovation is sharp if minimal. I was especially fond of the below accompanying interior shot of a tasting room. Lots of natural light and space to work in. London based firm Heatherwick Studio added level after level of sustainability features to the project, some of which are collected below. One of the biggest challenges, however, was the complex geometry of the curving greenhouses. Housing samples of the botanicals used in the production of gin, its execution, aesthetically, was extremely successful, with the bonus it captures excess heat from the distilling process next door to heat.

• Sensitive restoration and protection of the ecosystem around the distillery. 
• Biomass generators which create heat and power from byproducts of the distilling process. 
• Materials from destroyed buildings was recycled into restored ones. 
• Photovoltaic and hydroelectric power generation on site. 
• Rainwater collection.
• Small carbon footprint during operation gaining a BREEAM-rating of outstanding for industrial design. 

A post shared by Bombay Sapphire UK (@bombaysapphireuk) on Oct 17, 2015 at 4:12am PDT

Overall, assuming clients will continue to seek brand distinction in the marketplace through architecture, reciprocally, this becomes a lever for users to steer developers in the direction of sustainable, carefully designed buildings. Lucky few will ever work in them but the benefits of sustainable architecture spread far in this interconnected world. Three general conclusions:

• Restoration projects are notorious for going over budget but, as seen in our examples, this plays to the benefit of more radical functional changes where more modern uses are supported. Modern uses brings modern technology, which on a whole are more efficient than previous generations'. 
• When planning a project, tourism becomes a proxy measurement of the public's sentimentality for the structure, either individually or regionally (historic districts), and this in turn can have a large influence on determining how historically accurate the building program needs to be carried out. The final bridging between the above two points – radical modernization programs and an authentic restoration – is best done on a case-by-case basis. 
• Good specialist consultants go a long way toward bringing predictability to a sustainable project's timetable and budget. Sometimes it seems like they can see the future or look through 200 year old walls. Worth every penny.