Structural Survey

Re-imagining existing architecture: Reflections on refurbishment in the age of

sustainability
J.R. Mansfield,
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J.R. Mansfield, (2012) "Reimagining existing architecture: Reflections on refurbishment in the age of
sustainability", Structural Survey, Vol. 30 Issue: 4, pp.344-356, doi: 10.1108/02630801211256698
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SS
30,4
Re-imagining existing
architecture
Reflections on refurbishment in the age of
344 sustainability
J.R. Mansfield
Cloister Green Research, Canterbury, UK

Abstract
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the range of philosophical issues that can
encourage practitioners toward a reflective and meditative consideration of refurbishment as a way of
re-imagining existing architecture.
Design/methodology/approach The paper critically reviews existing architecture literature and
the emerging applied ethical enquiry in the built environment.
Findings Refurbishment projects can help achieve an extension of the economic life for many
buildings. The re-imagining of buildings is far from merely being a technical exercise. By analogously
considering a building as a human, various characteristics and traits can be found a voice, emotions
and memory. The messages that are recovered from buildings need to be decoded. The ongoing
applied ethical enquiry based upon the responsive cohesion model is encouraging architects to
reconsider the philosophical basis of their obligations to existing buildings.
Originality/value The paper offers an applied consideration of three linked issues that can
encourage a more meditative approach to re-imagining architecture.
Keywords Buildings, Architecture, Refurbishment, Corporeality, Palimpsest, Ethics
Paper type General review

Introduction
To some, the term refurbishment indicates a succession of minor works to ensure
a buildings suitability for use; to others it is a comparatively cheap alternative
to redevelopment. Some enthusiastically champion it as a positive net contributor to
sustainable targets; others view it as a purely pragmatic response to counter
depreciation. It is a matter of perspective, conditioned by myriad forces within and
external to the host building. The current refurbishment literature contains a broad
cross-section of perspectives, happily discussing the term from technical, functional,
economic and regulatory positions without really trying to draw them together into a
cohesive practice model or to advance an integrated theory. This is disappointing as in
many ways the term refurbishment has become a rather generic one (Quah, 1988) and
as such suffers from the lack of definitional precision that it both justifies and needs.
Other work has discussed many of the definitional aspects within the international
literature, concluding that while refurbishment may seem to be a simple term, upon a
more detailed consideration, it is revealed as being multi-faceted and contextually fluid
(Mansfield, 2002).
Given the scope within the larger corpus, it is interesting that refurbishment has not
Structural Survey
Vol. 30 No. 4, 2012
been examined extensively from the philosophical perspective. Architectural theory
pp. 344-356 attempts to formulate the maxims, rules and precepts which govern, or ought to
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-080X
govern, the practice of the builder (Scruton, 1979). Yet refurbishment invokes a
DOI 10.1108/02630801211256698 different sense of being, an alternative form of practice that is some way disconnected
 from theory and the practical guidance that informs new-build work. Such an approach Re-imagining
draws from a mosaic of considerations that attempt to reconcile tension and draw existing
consensus in refurbishment solutions. This paper considers three of the more diverse
issues that can encourage practitioners towards a reflective and meditative architecture
consideration of refurbishment. Reflection is an important aspect of professional
practice and central to the understanding of the potentials and limitations within any
refurbishment project. Reflection-in-action challenges architects to draw on their 345
experience and confront existing theories in order to gain a deeper understanding of
the issues impacting upon the re-imagining of existing architecture through
refurbishment. Reflection-in-action is in stark contrast to the technical rationality
model which asserts that professional knowledge has been shaped by thinking about
the profession and the institutional relations of research, education and practice
(Schon, 1983). Thus reflection is a powerful element and one that engenders a depth
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and breadth of palette to inform refurbishment options.

Two points require clarity. Initially, while the term architect is used throughout this
paper, it is recognised that a range of other professionals can be commissioned to
undertake refurbishment projects. Second, the paper contextualises refurbishment in
the commercial real estate sector, although it recognised that the same issues could be
equally relevant within the residential sector.

Refurbishment: some contextual commentary

It can be argued that in a perfectly functioning state, buildings would either fulfil their
purpose or be demolished, with few exceptions. Alteration would be unknown;
buildings would remain unchanged from the moment of their inception to their
eventual demise (Scott, 2008). Buildings are created out of specific circumstances, to
fulfil a particular purpose, and their material and form are determined by available
means, techniques and traditions (Cramer and Breitling, 2007). A brand new building
is an attempt to make a self-maintaining whole configuration (Alexander, 1979). Yet
from the outset, the pattern of use (and abuse) will often be very different from the
ways originally anticipated or expected. There are consequences streaming from the
patterns of use. Over time all buildings change imperceptibly, inevitably. The process
of aging leaves traces; surfaces acquire a patina which can be protective or destructive
(Cramer and Breitling, 2007). But there is a point at which the life of a building starts
to fade, lose energy and display entropy (Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). At this point,
a refurbishment programme can help breathe life into the structure and fabric,
rejuvenating or revitalising.
If refurbishment is considered solely as a technical activity that comprises a series
of physical interventions, the host buildings structure, fabric and service
infrastructure will be subject to change. The extent of intervention is a function of
the assessment of the current and future needs and expectations in terms of
performance. An important aspect is for the interventions to be sufficiently flexible
so that, in their turn, they can be adapted at some point in the future to meet
the requirements of that age (Cramer and Breitling, 2007). Successful refurbishments
are produced when a firm understanding of the original building is combined with a
sympathetic remodelling (Brooker and Stone, 2004). However, as opposed to being
barriers, the buildings existing context, structure, spaces, function and history
can offer many significant conceptual opportunities and an appreciation and
interpretation of these can provide the inspiration for the redesign (Brooker and
Stone, 2004).
 SS For any refurbishment programme, the scale and nature of interventions can only
30,4 be ascertained after gaining detailed knowledge of the host building. For the fuller
appreciation of the potential of the scheme, the enquiry will have both architectural
and socio-economic aspects (Scott, 2008). The building needs to be understood in terms
of its architectural style, and this will be necessarily derived from an exemplar of that
style (Scott, 2008). At all times the designer needs to be aware that a consistent
346 approach is required in order to avoid the larger number of bespoke situations from
leading to a variety of disconnected, individual solutions (Cramer and Breitling, 2007).
Yet interventions need to be recognisable as being of their age in order to imbue a
special quality of their own (Cramer and Breitling, 2007). The objective is not to
preserve the original or to contrast new with old. Instead, interventions should be more
ambiguous, more perplexing, but where contrasts may only be a small part (Henley in
Littlefield and Lewis, 2007).
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In architectural design terms, a building may seem relatively easy to understand,

simply because it exists (Traska, 2007). It has been successfully translated from a
complex process involving design and revision into a three dimensional and
functioning form. When considered from a more contemplative perspective, existing
buildings will always seem to be alien in the modern building and planning process
(Traska, 2007), especially as, in many instances, the structure and fabric will have
changed in one form or another over time. Refurbishment provides an opportunity to
address the past and the future in a cohesive way. In a schemes development, the
past assumes a greater and immediate significance because the existing form is
the palimpsest that retains the accumulated iterations of change over time, despite the
attempts at removal in subsequent interventions. In this sense, the past becomes a
package of built up meaning to be accepted, transformed or suppressed (Machado cited
in Brooker and Stone, 2004). Successful uncovering of the meaning in the condition
of the building determines the rules or strategies for the subsequent redesign
(Brooker and Stone, 2004).
A crucial set of issues that condition the contemporary perceptions and realties of
refurbishment is sustainability. The top down international agenda has forced
governments to address big issues such as energy efficiency and CO2 emissions
through primary and secondary legislation. But the majority of guidance and advice is
concentrated in new-build projects, ignoring the existing stock. This is perverse as
there is a significant quantity of commercial space that is redundant, has been
abandoned, is under-utilised or is in need of being brought to a standard suitable for an
extended economic life. This represents a chronic form of under-employment of
physical and financial resources (Mansfield, 2009). In the medium-term, owners and
occupiers may need to address these problems through programmes of intervention to
improve the chances of letting at near-market rental levels and to differentiate the
holdings from less efficient ones (Mansfield, 2009). From a sustainable perspective,
the re-imagining of existing buildings is compelling but it does come at a price. It has
been argued that sustainability should be the central organising principle of
government (Blair and Evans, 2004) yet economic growth has been prioritised as the
key goal. As such, sustainability could be considered to be primarily an exercise in
efficiency (Reed, 2007) and that the rhetoric surrounding the implementation of
sustainable goals is actually a more pragmatic response to the larger issue of economic
growth (Mansfield, 2009). Inevitably, the benefits gained need to be judged against
strong interpretative direction and guidance for protection and this can set up tensions
that create ethical dilemmas, an issue discussed later.
 Corporeality: the human body as metaphorical device Re-imagining
The theory and practice of architecture has challenged architects and theorists to strive existing
for perfection through mathematical exactitude, geometry and proportion as a
universal truth for composing form and space (Taylor, 2001). A primary aspect has architecture
been the dimensional qualities of the human body as architects have entered a
discourse as to the extent to which the measures of the body have affected ideas of
architectural composition and how changing conceptions of the human body have been 347
interpreted within architectural theory (Drake, 2008). The relation of the body to
architecture and the complex phenomenon of corporeality have held a privileged
position within the history of European culture (Vesley, 2005). This is not unusual as
man articulates the world through his body. Man is not a dualistic being where the
spirit and flesh are essentially distinct but is a living corporeal being, active in
the world (Ando, 1995, cited in Frampton, 2005). The world articulated by the body is a
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vivid, lived-in space and the phenomenological and hermeneutical conceptions of the
lived body give rise to the conception of anthropomorphism as the manifestation not
only of human form, but of human sentience (Drake, 2008). While the six exteroceptive
senses sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing and balance condition the way humans
perceive the outside world, humans also unconsciously locate their bodies within a
three-dimensional boundary demarcating personal space from extra-personal
space (Bloomer and Moore, 1977). By recognising that the body is the source of the
personal worlds which generates many of the meanings by which humans experience
the whole world (Bloomer and Moore, 1977), it is logical to attempt to synthesise that
experience within a design framework.
Geometry is the study of spatial order through the measure and relationship of
forms (Lawlor, 1989) and in its broadest sense relates to the creation of space by
construction or subdivision. The human form is at the core of the classical
architectural geometry described by Vitruvius and applied in his system of ratios for
the construction of perfect buildings. The human form maintains a particular
resonance in architectural design in that it sets up an immediate and possibly
subliminal empathy between the observer and the buildings proportions. Thus the
Vitruvian proposition aligning human body measurements directly to a building
unlocks a sequence of analogous claims that transcend the need to explain the meaning
of proportion, symmetry and harmony in architecture (Vesley, 2005). All of the systems
of proportion in common use throughout western civilisation emerge from a similar
epistemological framework and have their origins in the ancient Greeks (Hart, 2003).
Importantly, they are conditioning systems that allow the architect to step out of an
obligation to immanence due to the proportion being overlaid as a claim to the valid
truth the proportional system will provide the designer with authority for many
decisions about the form of a building which otherwise would depend upon personal
judgement (Broadbent, 1973 cited in Taylor, 2001).
Architectural design can be an allegorical process which assimilates human form
into the conception of buildings. Within this tradition, body icons are brought into play
to arrange buildings for a vita beata, a concept developed by Seneca, introduced into
architectural discourse by Alberti and further applied by various Venetian architects.
The view of the architecture for a vita beata poses a real possibility of a dialogic dance
between bodies and buildings (Frascari, 2005). The vita beata through architecture is
an ethical requirement for architects since beatific edifice increases the potential for
investing in psychic talents of its inhabitants (Frascari, 2005). The Florentine architect
Averlino (also known as Filarete) asserted that a properly designed and erected
 SS building will cresce lanimo (nurture the soul) of the inhabitants. He further argues that
30,4 by engaging in an allegorical game of body images, architects should mould and
construct the bodies of both buildings and humans. This analogical design is a way of
figuring out how to attain the correct balance of psychic and physic interaction in the
design (Frascari, 2005).
Given the lasting influence of human proportional representation on architectural
348 design, it does not take a large change in philosophical perspective to introduce
further human qualities to buildings. By ascribing other human characteristics, the
imaginal force of human traits is impressed, received and vividly transmitted to
the built environment (Frascari, 1987). In an analogy with human existence, the built
environment demonstrates the delicate coexistence of longevity, gradual aging and
sudden destruction (Cramer and Breitling, 2007). Like people, buildings have a
comparable make-up in that they have human-like similarities such as a core structure,
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mechanical and electrical engineering and a protective surface (Hay, n.d.). Buildings
can also have a DNA profile that plays a key role in developing individual personalities
buildings can appear smug, sad, shy, arrogant or even flirtatious. Just as the DNA profile
can inform the buildings character, it can dictate the structures longevity or whether it
becomes ill (Hay, n.d.).
Other human characteristics that can be transferred to buildings include a memory
and a voice. Memory exists as the foundation upon which meaning is built, affording
connection to the world, cohering group identity (Beaudry, 2003). This is equally
applicable in the built environment. As physical entities, buildings exist both in time
and in place and can become identifiable and treasured reminders of collective memory
of the local communities in which they are located. Yet a building can have a memory of
its own it retains knowledge of its former function and value. Its memory can be
written on its walls, its history pathetically exposed or deeply suppressed (Brooker and
Stone, 2004). The power of the raw dimensions and geometries of architecture conjure
the fullest range of emotional and poetic response (Littlefield and Lewis, 2007) to the
memories embedded in the structure and fabric. The exploitation and development of
this memory can create a composite of meaning and consequence which produce a
multi-layered complexity that would be impossible to replicate in a new building
(Brooker and Stone, 2004).
Buildings are not simply visual projects without any connection to concepts which
can be analysed or evaluated. Buildings speak and on topics which can readily be
discerned: democracy or aristocracy, openness or arrogance, welcome or threat,
sympathy for the future or the hankering for the past (de Botton, 2006). The danger of
ascribing a voice to a building is the potential to slip into the realm of sentimentality,
when considering the historical merits of a building (Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). Yet it
is recognised that through reuse a buildings voice can be strengthened (Henley in
Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). The corollary of the voice is the ability to hear and listen
and this is central for those charged with undertaking various forms of intervention in
the host buildings. Yet the voice of a building may be uniquely accessed by every
person visiting the building, while the architect specifically requires the synthesis of
what is verifiable and how the characteristics can be assimilated in the design
(Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). Phenomenology, the philosophical discipline developed
by Husserl that emphasises the immediacy of experience, has been a line of enquiry in
architectural theory and discourse. While dismissed as a mode of interpretation by
post-structuralists, it has been the subject of reconsideration in recent years. Heidegger
built upon Husserls work which in turn has been further applied in the architectural
 context by, for example, Bachelard (1958), Rasmussen (1959), Norberg-Schulz (1980), Re-imagining
Pallasmaa (2005), Holl et al. (2007) and Otero-Pailos (2010). These commentators existing
have reinvigorated the debate and challenged the post-structuralism orthodoxy.
Importantly, Pallasmaa views phenomenology as a way of seeking the inner language architecture
of building (Pallasmaa, 2005) and this can only be accessed if the architect is able and
prepared to listen. The act of listening makes the building an agent of its own
reinvention (Littlefield and Lewis, 2007) in that the fabric testifies not only to the 349
moment of its creation and the intentions and possibilities of its creators, but also to
history itself, the passage of time and the events and developments to which the
building witnesses (Cramer and Breitling, 2007).
A further human characteristic that can be introduced is emotion. Buildings
contain, retain and elicit emotions. For example, that buildings change over time must
be a truth accepted, even if it is a source of melancholic reflection (Hollis, 2009).
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Melancholy is a meditation on time, transitoriness and distance, recognising the tragic

dimension within a moment of bliss (Pallasmaa, 2005). In the architectural form,
melancholy manifests itself in the representation of the ideal the more beautiful a
building is, the sadder we risk feeling (de Botton, 2006). It juxtaposes the happiness in
the building as presented with a sadness caused by the awareness that such buildings
are rarely encountered (de Botton, 2006). Such architectural beauty illuminates the
mediocrity that often surrounds it. A consequence is that we can be profoundly
reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and how incomplete our lives
remain (de Botton, 2006). Such an emotional response may be heightened when
addressing a building that may have been subjected to change in the past; such change
could have been planned and sensitively handled, or be reactionary following a
damaging event or be necessary as the consequence of wilful or benign neglect.
Architecture is intimate with the passage of time and evidentially survives its test. But
the time of architecture is a detained time (Pallasmaa, 2005) dealing in time cycles
that surpass the scope of an individual life (Pallasmaa, 2005). Architectural time is
supra-natural: restless, persistent, with its own pace and its own consequences.
As the principal agents of change in refurbishment projects, architects very often
see their role in anthropomorphic terms performing surgery, breathing new life
(Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). The interventions are likely to be vigorous, dynamic and
determined acts which require the building to adopt a submissive role, to remain prone
(perhaps anaesthetised) while work is visited upon it (Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). Until
a building is opened up, its memory can remain locked, yet it is possible to coax a
building to yield its secrets. By listening, the architect empowers the building to guide
its future as the power dynamic is reversed, if only temporarily (Littlefield and Lewis,
2007). But architects have to work hard to hear what is said. Additionally, they have to
decide how to respond to the voice that they find; whether they use the same language,
or a modified version of it, or to use an entirely different one (Stewart in Littlefield and
Lewis, 2007). Importantly, the architect has to recognise that the building may have
been subject to possibly radical interventions over time. In this sense, it is necessary
for architects to filter the historic language and syntax from previous ages to
reinterpret the structure and fabric for its future use.
Societal and individual perceptions of buildings change drastically at different
times. The net effect is that an existing building will be read in a particular way that
is conditioned by the dominant perceptions and prejudices of that age. As such,
existing buildings must be multi-valent and consequently anticipate being liable to
various forms of intervention according to those prejudices (Scott, 2008). It is inevitable
 SS that any works will occasionally change and change entails confronting the unknown,
30,4 heralded in the new and calls what is known and familiar into question. Change can be
unsettling, particularly if it is rapid and sudden and its irreversibility becomes
painfully apparent (Cramer and Breitling, 2007). It is clear therefore that a fundamental
grasp of the host buildings characteristics and its DNA profile together with the
manipulation of horizontal or vertical surfaces will contribute to the success of a
350 remodelling project (Hay, n.d.). A buildings DNA is an artfully coded message which
can be effortlessly, almost automatically, decoded (Turnovsky, 1987) It is this ability to
decode a buildings make-up which underpins the architects choice of system from
which to remodel an existing structure successfully (Hay, n.d.).

Palimpsest: the building as a reworkable canvas

A concept that is intimately linked with the memories retained by a building is the
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palimpsest. Deriving from the Greek, palin (again) and psestos (rubbed smooth), the
term has been defined as something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of
its earlier form (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). While not exhaustive in its scope,
the definition encourages and provides opportunities for discussion. But a palimpsest
is not a simple construct; it is contradictory, ambiguous and paradoxical. Ontologically,
a building is something in its existing form while simultaneously alluding to some
metaphorical reference (Madden, 2004). A building has a recognised presence yet
also suggests absence; absence of some elements of the originally designed building;
but traces from the original building are evident in the current form. Second, the
host building may have been subjected to interventions over any time period; the
interventions remove the past, and the existing must be removed by future
interventions.
Existing buildings will have experienced the processes of time, acquiring a patina,
the indexical marks reflecting the events and activities that have transformed it,
constructing its individual narrative (Beaudry, 2003). A buildings past and experience
can be buried deep within its fabric, being difficult to unlock and open to subjective
interpretation. The buildings code can be articulated variously through language,
inflection and syntax. The code may be supplemented by the moral messages that the
building may possess, although it may have no power to enforce them (de Botton,
2006). The codes provide important clues towards understanding the symbolic
expression of the building. But context is the decoding key (Bertschinger, n.d.). A
complicating issue is that any building will contain layers of complexity which are
rediscovered and reinterpreted (Koo, 2009) through time and since a palimpsest
connotes the trace of time and space, it is constantly re-coded (Koo, 2009). This is an
important point as any examination of a buildings overt and occult codes will not only
be subject to critical architectural interpretation but will also be informed by a socio-
economic dimension that reflects the actual conditions at the time of consideration and
which will itself change over time. An interesting facet of the interpretation process is
the possibility of decoding a variation in the patterns in architectural syntax, which in
turn can reveal elements of the process often hidden behind layers of concept of
unconsciousness not readily accessible through the normal critical process
(Bertschinger, n.d). However, no technical ingenuity can erase the unconscious
reading of the human experience of the building (Pallasmaa, 2005) or the memories
retained in the buildings structural DNA. In the cyclical palimpsestual paradigm,
the buildings recovered and discovered history can become embedded at the heart of
the new works of intervention which, quixotically, may become subsumed in the future.
 The logic of a palimpsest is interaction and conversation. The host building Re-imagining
provides the platform for empathic and benevolent intervention but should not be seen existing
as an acquiescent subject upon which radical change is inflicted. It can be posited that
one of the largely unrecognised aspects of works of refurbishment is the enhancement architecture
of the narrative with the host building (Brooker and Stone, 2004). Such enhancement
imposes continuity on decision making through the tacit acceptance of patterns,
traditions and forms but not a replication of them. The buildings codes and embedded 351
memories have the potential to disturb and inspire all subsequent designs (Machado,
cited in Brooker and Stone, 2004). In a sense the insertion of new into old is a
celebration of the process of history; that new is made possible by the existence of old.
The old can stress the important cross-dependencies in the generative histories of an
architectural typology that may be worked with (Bertschinger, n.d.). However, the
building should not be subordinated to an artificial conceptual straitjacket of mimicry
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or plagiarism, nor should this become the norm. Furthermore, the host should not be
disfigured to the extent that it is no longer recognisable. If either of these aspects
occurs, the host will effectively result in the loss of its qualities (Cramer and Breitling,
2007). A particular constraint is that it is impossible to know the nature of the original
work: it has probably been replaced several times by the pretended innocence of repair
(Scott, 2008).

Ethics: the limits to intervention?

As a creative discipline, architecture necessarily engages with permanence and
change, reason and intuition, opportunity and constraint. As a practice, architecture
operates in two contrasting domains, one grounded in the conceptual, the other on
empiricism (Turnovsky, 1987). As a product, it is in the public realm yet, very generally,
is held and used privately. But architecture is neither pure form or solely determined
by socio-economic or functional constraints (Tschumi, 1996), it must hold a judicious
balance between them without offering compromise to either. In accepting any
commission, an architect acknowledges the need to mediate a wide range of ethical,
philosophical, technical and regulatory tensions, which will be both internal and
external to the project. Informed choice is central to the decision-making process, but
choice creates dilemma. Dilemma can be the catalyst for inspired design solutions.
While seeking solutions is complex and challenging in new-build instructions, they are
heightened when dealing with existing, possibly statutorily protected buildings.
Design can be considered as a translation of experience and of inspiration (Littlefield
and Lewis, 2007). Yet design is likely to be more influenced by the underlying philosophy
or theory that the architect, or their client, subscribes to. Architectural theory
encompasses all of the principles and concepts underlying the practice of architecture
that include the fundamental theories of classical proportion to those articulating
modern philosophical thought, literary theory, ethics and the social and cultural role of
architecture. Various philosophical strands continue to inform the larger critique and the
continuing development of theory. For example, phenomenology champions the value of
immediate experience over scientific measurement (Sharr, 2007), hermeneutics debates
how architecture is received and how that reception changes over time and according to
context, while critical theory examines the political dimensions implicit or explicit in all
human activities (Sharr, 2007). The various design schools are often didactic and only
accepting of exemplars from their own schools of thought. For example, the Modern
Movements central thesis form follows function is a polemic servicing a functionalist
creed. When theories are applied to the existing stock, their confident dicta are
 SS undermined by the secret lives of buildings, which are capricious, protean and
30,4 unpredictable (Hollis, 2009). The argument that all buildings must change to adapt,
because buildings that cease to change, cease to function (Brand, 1994) may be a prime
driver for solutions that are sought by refurbishment.
In the broader context, ethics can be considered to be the explicit philosophical
reflection on moral beliefs and practices. More specifically, it is the study of values and
352 customs of individuals or groups and can cover the analysis and employment of the
concepts of right or wrong and those of responsibility. Ethics was originally conceived
as a way to guide debate between the questions of morality and values. Ethical enquiry
has a distinguished lineage commencing with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle
believed that ethics is a practical not a theoretical enquiry and viewed ethical
knowledge as not a precise or certain knowledge, but rather more generalised.
His notions of virtue and the highest good have provided the platform for the
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development of the discourse. Significant contributions have been made by Kant,

Bentham and Mill. For example, Kants deontological approach considers the
rightness and wrongness of any action. While his categorical imperative
distinguishes self-interest from morality, a central belief is that actions only have a
moral value if performed as part of a duty. Benthams utilitarianism or consequentialist
approach, further elaborated by Mill, considers that the rightness or wrongness of
an action is determined by the resultant goodness or badness caused by the action.
These approaches have helped to inform the various applied ethical enquiries of many
professional activities including medicine and law.
Ethical positions can be conveniently categorised under a number of heads
descriptive ethics, normative ethics, meta-ethics and applied ethics. The normative
perspective the attitudes people ought to hold lies at the heart of the philosophical
approaches to ethics (Fox, 2000). Over the last 20 years, an applied enquiry into the
ethics of the built environment has emerged. The examination started with
considerations in architectural practice (Watkin, 1977; Harries, 1998; Spector, 2001;
Ray, 2005) where it is recognised that there are dilemmas in often congested
relationships between managing clients expectations and the need for architects to act
responsibly and within the public interest. More recent contributions by Fox (2000,
2006), Farmer and Guy (2009), Woolley (2009), Radford (2009) and Fewings (2009) have
expanded the arena of consideration into construction, strategic planning,
development control, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The theory
that underpins the debate is responsive cohesion (Fox, 2006; Radford, 2009), an
approach that recognises that a thing, such as a building, exhibits mutually
beneficial interactions between itself and its contexts and also to its internal
components (Radford, 2009). The theory has particularly resonance on a number of
levels; first, it is a comprehensive theory of ethics that is directly applicable to the built
environment; second, it focuses on relational qualities which aids evaluation of a
developments relationship with its immediate surroundings as well as its effects on the
wider environment; and third, it provides a way of prioritising those contexts, ordering
them in a hierarchy of importance (Goaman-Dodson, 2009). Interestingly, an area of
activity that, to date, has not been subject to the same level of detailed consideration is
the refurbishment of existing buildings.
In the practitioner arena, many of the dilemmas within refurbishment work can
have ethical dimensions that need to be carefully judged and balanced throughout
the design and intervention stages. Architects need to be mindful of the key question
what ought we to do? the source of fundamental philosophical debate. If refurbishment
 is considered to be a technical activity, it must follow a rather mechanistic approach to Re-imagining
providing solutions. However, there is a large range of ethical dilemmas in refurbishment existing
work that need to be afforded careful consideration and respect. Some examples include:
architecture
. Given the collective memory embedded in the existing stock, is any form of
intervention justifiable?
. Is it possible to resolve the tensions within the host building with those that are 353
external to it?
. Is it possible to reconcile the risks of technological innovation against those of
stagnation (Spector, 2001)?
. How to balance the needs to consume scarce resources and those to conserve
them.
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. What is an appropriate level of use of recycled materials?

. Reconciling energy efficiency targets within the host structures fabric capacities.
. The implied criticism of a previous architects work.
. Complying with regulatory standards within a clients budgetary framework.
. The reliance on environmental assessment tools and benchmarks which are
likely to be inappropriate because each project exhibits unique characteristics.
It is hoped that the research and practitioner communities will engage in a detailed
consideration of such dilemmas. It seems that the theory of responsive cohesion
provides the most logical and appropriate analytical framework within which the
discourse can be promoted and explored.

Some conclusions
Refurbishment presents the opportunity to address actual or perceived deficiencies
within existing buildings and to ensure continuities of use within the constraints of the
form. In many situations, extra-aesthetic considerations play an important role
in determining the critical decisions within a refurbishment programme. Different
scales of intervention in the host building are possible ranging from the most dramatic
to merely cosmetic and architects are charged with the task of mediating the
interventions often conflicting objectives. On the simplest level, refurbishment can be
a series of linked work parcels. But scheme architects require far more than technical
design competence and product specification knowledge. The seriousness needed
to produce successful re-imaginings of existing buildings requires the architect to
be far more reflective and meditative on the existential nature of existing buildings
and the varying contextual continuities. Such awareness will be enhanced by
considerations beyond the tensions and constraints imposed by the regulatory
framework that is based on protectionism and the hard economics of business case
evaluations.
From a sustainable perspective, re-imagining is compelling, although the benefits
gained need to be carefully measured and balanced and ethical dilemmas resolved.
Judging the pre-condition of any building requires a sensitive investigation in which
the architect attunes to and listens to the buildings voice. While a buildings experience
can be revealed slowly or rapidly, its historic occupational patterns can never be totally
erased; the traces encourage the fullest range of response beyond the power of raw
 SS dimensions and geometries (Littlefield and Lewis, 2007). Decoding the buildings
30,4 structural DNA is critical to the full understanding of past interventions as it is a
key to the choices appropriate for the scheme. Yet change can be unsettling, and
needs to be sympathetically handled. This is part of the architects contract with
the building: recognition of the past, understanding the current and proposals for the
future. By ascribing a building with human traits, a deeper, more subtle understanding
354 evolves.
The benefits from the re-imagining process need to be judged against evolving and
possibly incompatible guidance for sustainability and protection as this can create
ethical dilemmas. The responsive cohesion model is the foundational value upon which
further focused enquiry can be taken forward. Importantly, the contextual implications
of the idea of responsive cohesiveness mark a distinct change in terms of the dominant
conventions of design and philosophy (Fox, 2006). A large number of dilemmas exist
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within and surrounding refurbishment projects. Architects need to be particularly

sensitive to these issues. Education is a universal platform by which certain ethical
principles can be transmitted. But there has been long-standing uncertainty between
the process and the product and thus the ethical platform may be interpreted
differently according to professional discipline (Fewings, 2009). The process of
reflection-in-action encourages the ethical debate to be developed and applied and
ultimately to provide considered balance within refurbishment opportunities.

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Further reading
Dodds, G. and Tavernor, R. (2005), Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body
and Architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Spector, T. (2009), Why isnt architectural ethics an established discipline?, a paper presented at
the Ethics and the Built Environment Conference, University of Nottingham, Nottingham,
9-11 September.

Corresponding author
J.R. Mansfield can be contacted at: cloistergreenresearch@gmail.com

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