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Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —
Certified B Corporation — Adaptive Retrofit — Humanising Infrastructure — Making better places — Architecture — Public Realm — Spatial Strategy — Creative Reuse — Urban Transformation — Decarbonisation —

Pilot Retrofit Pattern Book— Research

Collaborator(s)

Joel Gustafsson Consulting (JGC) / Etude

5th Studio have published a Retrofit Pattern Book, supported by the National Retrofit Hub and consumer champions Which?

The UK’s housing stock includes some of the oldest and least efficient and least healthy in Europe. Reducing the carbon emissions that arise from heating our homes is critically important to how the UK achieves its Net Zero target by 2050. No less important is to ensure that homeowners can enjoy warmer, healthier, and more comfortable homes, while benefitting from lower energy bills.

The pilot Retrofit Pattern Book sets out effective approaches for retrofitting a flat-fronted Victorian terraced house – one of the most prevalent housing typologies in the UK. It is the first of a series of pattern books which it is hoped will eventually cover most UK housing stock.

The pilot Retrofit Pattern Book can be read here.

The Pattern Book has been developed in close collaboration with Joel Gustafsson Consulting (JGC), and the concept and content has been refined iteratively with a panel of homeowners to ensure complex topics were communicated as clearly as possible. The draft final document was peer-reviewed by the team at Etude.

Uniquely in the world of retrofit advice, the modelling and analysis are based on kWh/m2a – rather than EPC – more accurately represents the energy expenditure, carbon emissions and potential energy savings involved in retrofit.

5th Studio and JGC constructed detailed 3D and energy models of a typical terraced house and tested both the existing energy losses and the potential reductions to these arising from a wide range of fabric improvement and technological measures. These measures have been characterised by cost and need for external advice but also by timescale and the level of disruption involved – from those DIY tasks that might be completed over a weekend, to whole house retrofit works that might take a year to plan and implemented with a professional team.

Eventually it is hoped that this could be developed into an interactive web-resource, allowing users to gain immediate access to whichever advice was most relevant to their needs. A web-based version would also allow users to input data which would affect the outcomes of the model: includingfor example, forms of heating, desired set temperatures, geographical location, etc.

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“The retrofit of existing homes is one of the greatest opportunities to reduce energy demand and national carbon emissions.

It is fantastic that the first Pattern Book is now being published and that its quality has been recognised by both the National Retrofit Hub and by consumer champions, Which?

We look forward to completing the set and providing accessible, meaningful advice to every kind of homeowner across the UK on how to reduce heating bills and make their homes more comfortable.”

Oliver Smith, 5th Studio Director

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Press

Retrofit Pattern Book - Flat-fronted Victorian terraced house

The Architects' Journal, Jan 2025 – Retrofit Pattern Book

Architecture Today, Jan 2025 – Retrofit Pattern Book

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CONTACT

studio@5thstudio.co.uk

We are currently interested in receiving CVs and short portfolios from Part 2 Urban Designers. Please contact us via recruitment@5thstudio.co.uk

We actively encourage qualified applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

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