Sustainable Design: Delivering Value, Enhancing Impact

“Construction makes up nearly 40% of the world’s C02 emissions; we have a responsibility to reduce our consumption as much as possible. From a commercial perspective, end users are becoming more and more conscious of their impact on the planet so there’s a real demand for sustainable office spaces. By sustainable, we’re not just talking about the EPC rating or amount of carbon that has been used - it’s also about prioritising the happiness and wellbeing of end users.”

Issy Robertson, Project Architect

"We need to secure the environment for future generations. It’s a responsibility to our children and our children’s children. As a practice, dMFK has always held that as a primary driver of what we do - hence building a strong reputation for our retrofit work. Sustainable design shouldn’t be viewed as a burden. It’s an opportunity for architects - and in turn our clients - to learn, innovate and develop exciting new ways to deliver beautiful, useful places that people want to spend time in.”

Ben Knight, Director

“When you’re retrofitting a building, you have more constraints. This means we have to work a bit harder investigating the history, context and physical integrity of the structure - every building is surprisingly different, so you rarely get the same problem twice. However, this means there’s a richness and robustness to the end product. Delivering a building with longevity is key to sustainability; we want to design places that retain their quality, usefulness and commercial value in the long term.”

Ben Knight, Director

“There’s substantial embodied energy savings associated with repurposing existing buildings compared to demolition and rebuild. Ensuring that every site is analysed for retrofit viability is therefore a huge opportunity in terms of sustainability.”

Issy Robertson, Project Architect

“It’s our job as architects to produce something that looks beautiful regardless of the constraints. These might be site constraints, financial constraints or really onerous environmental performance constraints - we are trained to deal with them. Luckily, the industry is developing solutions to make delivering buildings that look good and perform well easier. For example, the ultra-thin, highly efficient glazing we used in our restoration of the ailing Arts and Crafts factory Voysey House.”

Issy Robertson, Project Architect

"Applications such as BREAM, WELL, and NABERS provide a good starting point, but they shouldn’t be treated as a tick box exercise. Taking a holistic approach to sustainable design is most effective in the long-term; it's not just about minimising upfront carbon costs, we also need to prioritise designing buildings that are still relevant in 100 years’ time. Creating places that are timeless, rather than trend-led, means that structures don’t end up being stripped out (or worse, demolished) in a few years.”

Issy Robertson, Project Architect

“Whilst different clients often have different priorities when it comes to ESG, our comprehensive approach means they generally sit within dMFK’s wider sustainability strategy. We promote a ‘retrofit first’ rather than a ‘retrofit only’ approach, because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all when it comes to buildings. This involves undertaking a thorough analysis of each site, its context and the brief to determine hat is most appropriate. appropriate. Sometimes, disassembly-led demolition is the most holistically sustainable option.”

Ben Knight, Director