Login
iscover
Retrofitting an old building for a new use is arguably one of the greenest approaches to development on offer. So why isn’t Australia doing more of it?
According to Colliers’ managing director of project leaders, Jon Barnes, cost frequently stands in the way, pushing those involved in building construction towards the high-carbon venture of starting from scratch as opposed to adapting what’s available.
“When it comes to building reuse and refurbishment, it’s all or nothing, which means a total building services and fabric strip prior to rebuilding,” Mr Barnes noted.
In recent years, however, public opinion has begun to grow for prioritising environmental impacts over the cost.
The disuse of office blocks and hotels during COVID-19 kicked off a groundswell of interest in pursuing adaptive reuse projects to create residential housing at a time when many global markets were – and still are – facing dwellings shortages.
As Colliers noted in a recent release, this has given rise to government investigative committees and rezoning initiatives across Asia, the UK and the USA.
And while some notable projects in Australia have included Dexus’ Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney, Colliers’ national director of project leaders Phillipa Aiken argued that Australia could be doing a lot more to find cost-effective solutions for retrofitting.
“Given most buildings have a design life of 50 years, and carbon footprints are greatly reduced by the reuse of an existing structure, cutting the cost of adaptive reuse projects in Australia should occupy much of the industry’s focus on sustainability,” Ms Aiken said.
The use of commercial spaces for residential aims has garnered perhaps the most attention of late, but it’s in the turnaround of commercial properties from one use to another that presents some of the greatest potential for sustainable development.
Colliers reported that project leaders are increasingly being called upon by the health sector for adaptive reuse work.
The evolution of treatment practices in many medical disciplines, coupled with changing models of care, has seen some spaces become redundant while the need for others grows.
As Colliers explained: “A low-density cardiac ward can be stripped and repurposed to provide a new intensive care unit. Similarly, an outpatient’s service building can be converted for retail and administration spaces.”
The health sector, however, appears to be embracing adaptive solutions in part because reuse in this sector often comes in at a lower cost than rebuilding, due to the particular nature of their buildings and requirements during retrofits.
Structural compliance in accordance with Australia’s building code is often the biggest cost for adaptive reuse projects, according to Colliers.
“It is not uncommon to provide additional structural reinforcement and support, even if the occupancy type and population loads remain the same, since earthquake compliance and entire structural modelling requirements have changed significantly over the last decade,” the firm noted.
According to Ms Aiken, some recent innovations have emerged to lower the cost in retrofitting to meet compliance standards, such as layering carbon fibre to existing concrete structures and bonding structural concrete.
She sees a bright future for adaptive reuse as long as innovators continue to bring their best ideas to the task.
“In time, the savings that can be achieved for an adaptive reuse project over a new build will be greater than 25 per cent, while reaping the existing benefits of reduced development approval time frames and 20 per cent less construction program times,” Ms Aiken said.
Never miss a beat with 
Stay across what’s happening in the Australian commercial property market by signing up to receive industry-specific news and policy alerts, agency updates, and insights from reb.
Subscribe to reb Commercial:
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.