The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
In this episode, retrofit expert Bob Prewett describes how a client’s brief for an ‘extreme retrofit’ in 2008 gave him ‘something bigger than architecture to think about’. Divided between London and Wells, the ten-strong practice has a portfolio of completed retrofit projects that achieve upwards of 70% energy savings and regularly monitors its buildings to understand how they operate over time.
Although a founder member of the Passivhaus Trust, Bob observes that ‘we rarely push all the way to Passivhaus which is a bit strong for many heritage buildings’. Self-taught when retrofit resources, training and exemplar projects were scant, Bob explains the many ways architects can upskill today.
An AJ Retrofit 2022 award winner in the Best House over £500K category, Prewett Bizley’s west London mews house is a deep retrofit of a Victorian mews house in a conservation area. It achieved an 82% reduction in total energy use based on measured data.
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About Bob Prewett
Bob Prewett co-founded Prewett Bizley Architects in 2005 after five years at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and working abroad in Belgium and the Netherlands. He is a founder member of Passivhaus Trust.
Bob lectures regularly on retrofit, including at the International Passivhaus Conference, the UK Passivhaus Conference, the Retrofit Academy and the Passivhaus Trust’s Retrofit Masterclass series (2022).
He is in the final stages of completing an EnerPHit retrofit of his own 1960s home in north London.
Prewett Bizley’s Notting Hill Mews House. Source: Andrew Meredith
Show notes: Projects and resources mentioned in this episode
Enerphit standard
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
LETI Retrofit Guide (2021)
Etude sustainability engineers
Source:Andrew Meredith
Living room kitchen. Source: Andrew Meredith
London Retrofit Action Plan (2021)
Retrofit for the Future (2014)
Each Home Counts (2016)
CIBSE TM 65 Embodied carbon in building services (2021)
Credits
Climate Champions is produced in association with ACAN, the Architects’ Climate Action Network
Podcast produced and edited by Concept Culture
Music: Edmilson do Pífano, Forró de dois Amigos. Interpretation: Felipe Tanaka e banda Balaio de Baião