What if the challenge is not only to preserve more of what we already have – but to change what we expect from our buildings? For Kerstin Kane, Principal Planning Officer for Sustainability at the City of London Corporation, transformation is part of the everyday reality of shaping one of the world’s most dynamic business districts. Here, the ambition to reduce carbon emissions, encourage retrofit and reuse materials has to work alongside commercial expectations, financial viability and the realities of existing buildings.
Ahead of the conference Sustainable Transformation on 29 & 30 September, we spoke with Kerstin about why a cultural shift is needed in the building industry, what currently stands in the way of transformation – and what the City of London is learning from putting “retrofit first” into practice.
Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us how transformation plays a role in your work?
I am leading the Sustainability Team in the Planning & Development section at the City of London Corporation, the governing body of the financial district of London. My work includes negotiating the best sustainability outcomes of development in the City as well as contributing to the vision of the City of London as a futureproof and vibrant place for businesses, residents and visitors through planning policy.
This role enables me to work in partnership with relevant stakeholders to drive forward sustainable building design from an early stage of the design process and to collaborate with the industry to find workable and best in class solutions for reducing carbon emissions, encouraging retrofit, material reuse and climate resilient design in the City’s specific context.
We know that we increasingly need to preserve and transform what we already have. In your view, what needs to change for transformation to become a more natural first choice in the building industry?
In the commercial sector it needs a culture change in what people expect of their work spaces. In the UK, expectations are driven by property agents for ever larger, taller, column-free spaces that enable maximum flexibility but little character. Most post-war buildings cannot provide this without major structural changes that also produce much carbon and waste.
We need more creative designers to transform buildings sensitively and with character and soul. Aside from that, the UK industry is not yet aligned and prepared with regard to building and material reuse. The deconstruction, storage, processing, matchmaking, warrantees and safety aspects of materials, and the supply chains are not working seamlessly together in a coordinated and regulated way.
When ambitions for transformation meet the realities of building in practice, where do you see the biggest challenges – and where do you see the greatest opportunities to make a real difference?
The challenge of ensuring financial viability, made more uncertain early on at planning stage with regard to the structural opportunities of an existing building and future supply chains stop transformative development aspirations early on. At worst, projects are abandoned after investing time and money into the planning process.
We need to incentivise retrofit and regenerative buildings by ensuring people really feel better, healthier and safer with regard to climate change and energy security. Everyone needs to understand how sustainable transformation contributes to it, and that is not yet the case. We need governments to clearly communicate this and create policy to support it rather than sending out conflicting messages through their actions.
Looking a few years ahead, what do you hope we will have changed in the way we work with existing buildings and cities?
Ideally:
We have a coordinated national, regional and local planning policy framework that prioritises climate change adaptation and mitigation, including transforming the industry to support this.
The construction industry has clear goals and can quickly adapt and coordinate supply chains accordingly.
People appreciate regenerative ways of living and working, including enjoying creatively transformed buildings and valuing a sense of place from a diverse urban townscape.
Or at least: we have made huge steps towards demonstrating the environmental, economic and social success of sustainable transformation.
Above all, what do you hope participants will take away from Sustainable Transformation after your presentation? It could be a new perspective, a practical approach, or simply the motivation to do something different.
Hopefully I can show how “successful” looks like in the City of London’s current commercial context and how we get there. And what doesn’t work well. People can use this to think about how they can make transformation successful and what they would do differently in their own context.
What can London’s retrofit experience teach the rest of us?
At Sustainable Transformation, Kerstin Kane will bring these experiences from policy into practice in her presentation Retrofitting the City. Using the City of London as her starting point, she will share how a “retrofit first” approach and carbon optioneering can help identify and negotiate more sustainable outcomes – as well as where the approach meets its limits.
Her ambition is not to present a perfect model to copy, but to offer something perhaps more useful: an insight into what works, what doesn’t, and what others can take from London’s experience and apply in their own context.
Meet Kerstin Kane at Sustainable Transformation on 29 & 30 September.
