From nuance to narrative: the data that shows how reuse became architecture’s byword

My interior architecture degree taught me all about building reuse: the nuances between preservation, adaptation and intervention, and the phenomenology of the interior.

A little later, a period writing for Mark Magazine (RIP) deepened my interest in architecture media, and during my subsequent master’s in architectural history, I became particularly enamoured with the way that architecture is represented beyond buildings themselves.

In the years since joining ING, I have witnessed first-hand the industry’s shift towards a more sustainable architecture, with increasingly demanding accreditations and greater understanding of the operational impact of buildings in use. But now, the narrative is changing again – less about designing more sustainable buildings and more about the benefits of reusing existing buildings.

From architects to developers, consultants to contractors, people working in and passionate about the built environment have begun to embrace building reuse and its critical role in responding to the sociopolitical, economic and environmental challenges of the contemporary world.

I doubt anyone reading this is not aware of The Architects’ Journal’s “Retrofit First” campaign. Launched by managing editor Will Hurst in September 2019, the initiative urged architects to “think reuse first, new build second” to “reduce the wasteful demolition of buildings” and promote “low-carbon retrofit as the default option”.

Of course, it’s impossible to pinpoint an entire movement's inception on one specific moment but suddenly it seemed everyone was talking about building reuse. So I got curious. Could this perception be backed up by data?

In November last year, I was able to combine my twin interests in building reuse and architecture’s representation in the media into a study, which I was honoured to present at the Interior Educators conference being held at my alma mater, Northumbria University.

Taking four of the UK’s leading architecture titles as an initial sample, I reviewed the terminology used across articles published online between 2010 and 2024: first, seeking any terms relating to the reuse of existing buildings (adaptation, refurbishment, reinvention, renovation, retrofit…); second, digging deeper into digital visibility around sustainability, retrofit and carbon.

What was instantly evident was an increase over time in the use of the building reuse narratives, particularly from 2020 onwards. And while there is an overall uptick in the digital visibility of building reuse, of more specific interest is the exponential increase in terminology around sustainability, carbon and retrofit that is driving this growth. In 2024, almost 25% of all sampled articles across the four titles referenced sustainability – before 2020 this remained consistently below 6%. Similarly, 10% of articles published in 2024 contained the word “retrofit” – a staggering ratification of the media’s take-up not only of adaptive reuse as a whole but of sustainability-focused narratives.

It feels undeniable, then, that these conversations have come to dominate the adaptive reuse conversation in a way that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years earlier. The semantic changes of terminology over time is a study in itself, but the industry’s adoption of “retrofit” as the favoured term for building reuse is arguably as important as the action. For one, it unites the practice of architecture with a single agenda that – despite nuances in meaning – is one of positive action in response to the climate emergency. It has created a narrative that has gone far beyond the AJ’s own “Retrofit First” campaign to deliver a meaningful mandate with which to lobby government for change using a singular terminology that has subsequently been adopted by mass media.

The academic in me continues to dislike the word “retrofit”. To borrow a definition from Graeme Brooker, head of interior design at the Royal College of Art, “Retrofit surfaced in building languages sometime back in the 1980s to signal the upgrading of the energy efficiencies of domestic spaces and has subsequently taken on far more importance than it deserves… What a rubbish word.”

But the communications consultant in me can’t help but be fascinated (and impressed) by the industry’s adoption of a single term that pushes towards a shared agenda. “Retrofit” has captured the imagination of practice and media alike and, for the sake of the planet, that can only be a good thing.