Renaissance Assets: A great future for old existing buildings

While our society is still reeling in crises and climate change, the German real estate sector and urban development are already on the ground and are being counted. Knock out in a few months, although the last rounds were not so glorious anymore. Even as we fall, we feel how heavy the weight of financing, construction prices, falling rents is weighing on us this time and holding us on the ground until we can get up again.

There is also little consolation that is not a shame for everything that went down with us. It is obvious that every crisis is always the proverbial opportunity for renewal. But for now, it's time to take stock and review the past in your mind's eye: Yes, it looks as though we've never really listened to the specialist trainer for sustainable training methods, who constantly called on the defense not to forget and avoid the hard blows. Well, some of these hits, such as the Corona crisis or wars in Europe, seem unforeseen, but in sum of the impacts, it is hard to say that the consequences were not likely due to previous mismanagement in housing construction or a lack of push for structural innovations and development processes. Recent events have only radically revealed the system errors and pushed new behaviours such as mobile working.

Lying down on the boards that mean the world, a fundamental crisis of existence dawns on us designers of buildings and cities. The general and especially young audience at the ring screams at us that it would be better not to create anything new at all. As Prof. Dr. Eckhart Hertzsch from Buro Happold points out in the Futureplace Dialog, we must admit that every step of building something new means a worsening of the overall situation in the area of sustainability. With Stranding Point, i.e. when the building no longer meets the regulations, we have now also found our own tipping point for individual properties.

For the first time in recent history, abandoning real estate probably does not mean an increase in value in the medium term. On the contrary, inadequate compliance with sustainability requirements can lead to massive losses of between 15 and 60%, depending on the severity of global warming. There is a sword of Damocles hanging over property owners: They should actually be the bearers of hope, as the future of sustainability lies in existing ones. However, they are being punished because their properties cannot yet and may never meet the high standards of the future.

In order to get back in the ring, we must reinvent ourselves as designers and as an industry. But what if every creative act quickly worsens the situation? Can it be the role of a generation just to clean everything up in humility and somehow correct and correct mistakes? Because that is the current situation: A generational task, perhaps even for several. But you don't master big tasks defensively. We need a new art of engineering and architecture — one of thinking ahead. Fortunately, it is already developing in many places, with interesting start-ups and new approaches.

Unfortunately, however intelligent buildings are still far from ensuring a sustainable and economic balance sheet. If the building is unused or underused, it remains an economic and ecological problem. Sustainable benefits remain an underestimated factor in the discussion. We shy away from this debate. With the same high CO2 balance, approximately a longer useful life per capita is significantly more sustainable and only a well-used property will have lasting economic value. In addition to the engineering skill of thinking ahead, we therefore need an art or skill of use. Make old, new attractiveness, cleverly present increased utilization as a positive experience and recognize trends and markets for existing situations and requirements.

In 15 years up to 2019, 40% of all department stores have already closed.

Retail: A step backwards for progress

In 15 years up to 2019, 40% of all department stores have already closed. And this trend will continue, because it's not just bad luck and mismanagement. As a society, we should be honest: We don't want them anymore! They are the first dinosaurs in the trade and only represent our world of needs in a few exclusive places. Other monocultural retail typologies are likely to at least be on the decline. In A-locations and cities with good economic conditions, the revitalization of retail locations and properties with new mixes of uses is still relatively unproblematic, although it often means a complete renovation due to the geometric and hard-to-illuminate buildings. It's already getting tighter in B-layers.

New usage approaches, which also require ESG requirements and CO2 reduction, must be combined with social aspects. The urban function of retail centers must be absorbed by other means to make our cities more attractive. This also strengthens trade again at a reduced level. It is advisable to think about a new type of community buildings which, with a clever mix of uses, offer valuable and economically viable benefits for busy city centers. We call these places COMMUNITY PLACES. The local community experiences the value of the place and supports it through its use and identification with it. In the ESG rating, a big S should then overcompensate for limited options on E.

Industry: New motivations for renovation

The dialogue with Martin Czaja from inbright expressed that there is a broad consensus and that there are many concepts for tackling the ecological renovation of commercial properties. However, in an industry that has been accustomed to major economic successes in recent years, it is probably difficult to invest in pure restructuring projects that are only slightly profitable. On the other hand, Jirka Stracken from CBRE shows that 17.1 million m² of office in Berlin alone are already older than 15 years and are therefore potentially at risk of no longer meeting the required standards. The challenge is therefore massive. The task is not only to develop approaches to achieve the necessary sustainable upgrade, but it must also be accompanied by an increase in the attractiveness of the property for the user or investor.

Increasing the density of benefits is a key discussion here: On the one hand, through reorganization so that tenants use sensibly less space per building, which is significantly less local today, and on the other hand through higher land utilization. Another aspect goes beyond the specific plot of land and sees the city as a system: Because much that cannot be solved by the individual — in energy management, for example — can be achieved through cooperation between the neighbourhood.

Quartier: Ecological action in the city system

The neighborhood as an ecosystem of networked solutions is also at the center of our dialogue with Prof Ute Schneider from KCAP, who has a particular focus on infrastructure-driven urban development. The solution often cannot lie in the individual property at all, but only in a network of districts and districts. An urban renaissance is therefore also needed, as some components of urbanity are currently being omitted due to the decline of retail trade. The focus is on increasing social issues to increase the attractiveness of cities, as are comprehensive technological solutions in sustainable engineering. A kind of business improvement district is probably also needed for sustainable urban regeneration and increasing urbanity.

But here too, we need business ideas for new things and incentive systems for investments that are not only based on a funding landscape, but establish new economic action. This means taking a close look at energy management and turning users into producers, for example, in order to increase the use per area. This is how change becomes attractive. Mind you, we are talking about “benefit”, i.e. added value for the consumer and not “exploitation,” which often only represents added value for the provider. Utilization should be increased when the benefits for the consumer also increase.

Outlook: A renaissance of the brave

On closer inspection, the term Renaissance is a big one. And here, too, you can learn from what already exists — history. The Renaissance era rediscovered lost qualities of antiquity, broke with the direct past of the Dark Middle Ages and paired the imagination and architecture of antiquity with unprecedented technological progress. In this way, a variety of outstanding buildings were formed. Culture and art also flourished as a result of a new understanding of the perspective of space. Understanding and designing the perspective became the connecting element between the arts, from painting to architecture. What was the insight of perspective back then is perhaps today that of systemic, organic interaction, the interaction of everything with everyone within a spatial environment and the effects on our climate, environment and quality of life. The paradigm of the ecosystem is becoming a broad insight between the disciplines of ecological, economic and, hopefully, soon in urban development.

During the Renaissance, people broke away from an outdated system of values and began to think about themselves. This process led to bold steps of renewal. Competition between regions and city states was a driver of innovation and creativity. Perhaps increased competition between regions and cities would also help us again. For example, with regard to the best building regulations that inspire buildings with existing buildings instead of placing them in a weak competitive situation with the climate pest new building as soon as you just think about starting construction.

What is needed is a rebirth of bold design that starts with the technical innovations of simplicity and focuses on the clever use of existing things. But it will be necessary to harvest renewable energy wherever we can. This is the only way to bridge the gap between existing buildings rarely being able to meaningfully optimize operational energy consumption to an absolute minimum. It must be rewarded for doing more with less and achieving a higher density of benefits.

Let us be bolder together, prepare for the next round with a new tactic and, like the Renaissance, start the city and construction in this spirit.