Build it up or Tear it Down: upgrades vs demolition debate
Proposition – Team Repair
We know the facts; 25 percent of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the construction industry alone, 4.3 million homes missing from the national housing market, 648,114 vacant homes counted in 2019 in England alone…and yet the UK still demolishes 50,000 buildings a year! Our scandalous addiction to demolition is wrecking our built heritage, communities and the environment.
Decent buildings serving valuable community roles are demolished to turn a penny for profit while opportunties to upgrade insulation and plug drafts are routinely missed in favour of carbon-belching demolition-led development. With a limited time left to make serious change in the sector, architects must halt all demolition. Nothing is beyond repair, nothing cannot be upgraded. The greenest building is the one that already exists.
Opposition – Team Replace
It’s time to face facts, our built environment is in desperate need of an overhaul. While some historic buildings are worth preserving, Britain is bursting with badly built budget blocks of poor quality homes thrown up by cowboy contractors on the cheap – cold, miserly and not worth saving.
Upgrading old building is too often too expensive. There isn’t an endless pool of cash to top up Blighty’s outdated, dangerous and decaying stock. In the midst of an ongoing housing crisis with land value at a record high, innovative use of space with higher densities can unlock the finance to build new architecture actually fit for the 21st century.
Knocking down a few estates is a fair price to pay for the super insulated high-density eco homes that will replace them.
Is this the end of construction, or is it just the beginning?
About the debate
This debate, curated by Open City Accelerate in partnership with ACAN, will interrogate merits and pitfalls of both sides of the demolition vs upgrades argument. A star-studded panel will fight it out for the future of architectural practice. Join us in RichMix to take on the elephant in the room, and help us answer one of the biggest questions of architectural culture time. Is it time to stop building?
The Proposition – Team Repair
The Opposition – Team Replace
Chairs
Time and Location
Thursday, 11th May
7.00pm – 9.00pm (doors: 6.30pm)
Rich Mix, Shoreditch
Tickets
Standard: £12.00
Concessions: £8.00
