Retrofitting in context:Pushing the boundaries of building performance evaluation in UK housing

Retrofitting of existing dwellings is vital to addressing concerns about climate change, fuel poverty and energy security in the built environment. But in many cases, it is seen as a purely technical fix using the same approaches as new-build to evaluate the performance of interventions and relying on quantifiable criteria. Such an approach reduces homes to equipment devoid of their other valued qualities. Thus, while many domestic retrofit programs now embrace social as well as technical aspects of performance, there is scope to adopt broader approaches to assessing the success of interventions. One way to achieve this is through greater involvement from architects or at least embedding “architectural values” in the design and delivery of domestic retrofit. This chapter argues for this expanded view to embrace dimensions of performance outside the current purview. It presents case studies of research into energy and environmental conditions in dwellings at the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) which has been conducted over 15 years and range in their approaches from socio-technical research and action research through to delivery of retrofit solutions as part of a design team. It argues that viewing retrofit in a wider context will encourage householders to buy-in to interventions and lead to more satisfying results for householders and create greater energy and carbon efficiency across the UK housing stock.