1.50 ConEd Learning Hours
8:30 am - 10:00 am

In an era where cities like Toronto impose carbon caps on new construction and with the global impact of the EU taxonomy on the construction industry, building transformations are becoming increasingly important to achieve environmental goals while making projects more economically viable. As we all know, it was once more expensive to transform than to demolish. This talk will showcase best practices, including the transformation of a skyscraper in Shenzhen, China that preserved 85% of its concrete structure and became a vibrant, social space. We will also explore how a concrete factory was repurposed into a performance academy and rock museum, how a 1990s office building was meticulously restored and extended, and how a rundown shopping centre was transformed into a tropical lagoon.

Learning Objectives
1. Learn how to partially reuse heavy industrial structures that are truly unattractive, not just appealing brick factories.
2. Understand how to make the case to commercial clients for transformation over redevelopment.
3. Explore the impact of embodied carbon when a project is partially transformed rather than redeveloped.
4. Gain strategies to find new relevance for buildings with negative histories—whether political, social, or environmental.

Sanne van der Burgh, MVRDV

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