The team at The Architects’ Journal did a fantastic job with this year’s Retrofit Live conference, which brought together the community of retrofit and reuse experts, practitioners and advisers to champion and celebrate positive change for the built environment.
Richard Nelson, Abyss Global’s Founder and Managing Director, was delighted to attend as part of the Don’t Waste Buildings team, along with fellow co-founders, Leanne Tritton and Will Hurst.
Also a big ‘thank you’ to AJ for giving Don’t Waste Buildings some last-minute space to promote our campaign at the conference in London on 11 September.
DWB's no-frills last-minute table at the AJ Retrofit conference and exhibition. It screams "unfunded volunteer campaign"!
Emily Booth, AJ’s Editor, kicked off the day with a reminder of how far we have all come since the Retrofit First Campaign was launched five years ago.
Managing Editor Will Hurst and the team were genuine pioneers in raising awareness and nudging the industry in the right direction.
Baroness Young giving the opening keynote speech.
Labour peer Baroness Barbara Young then outlined the opportunity and challenges ahead. Refreshingly, she is one of the only people in the retrofit world to speak of the importance of marketing and communications - not only to educate people but also to guide them to where financial support and technical expertise can be found. To paraphrase - 'There are numerous grants and examples of financial assistance available, but no one knows they exist. If I had a pound for every time I have heard someone say 'but there is a link on our website', I will scream.'
Rafe Bertram from Enfield Council was brilliant at drilling into the minute detail of how to bring council homes up to standard and reduce the heating bills of residents.
Duncan Baker-Brown gave a thought provoking tour through some of his thinking and the case studies in his newly released book, ‘The Pedagogies of Re-Use’. His wit (see below) and candour were appreciated.
Duncan Baker-Brown's characteristic wit, while making a very serious point about the importance of climate change mitigation.
And finally, a rare photo of the co-founders of #DontWasteBuildings all together and in front of our hastily made posters!
Co-Founders of Don't Waste Buildings, left to right: Will Hurst, Leanne Tritton, and Richard Nelson.