Turning offices into homes

This Issue This is a part of the Retrofitting houses feature

By - , Build 105

Looking at retrofits in a broader context, we discover the environmental and economic advantages of converting office buildings into apartments.

In the early to mid 1990s, vacancy rates for office accommodation in the Wellington CBD were over 20%. Fewer than 1,000 people lived in the central city area, and Courtenay Place was still suffering from the demolition derby of the late 1980s.

Over the last 10 years, the inner city population has grown to around 10,000. It is also much more diverse, including students, young professionals, baby boomers and an increasing proportion of couples with children. As a result, the CBD is no longer totally dominated by offices and retailers open only during the day. It now encompasses a vibrant urban living environment with activities virtually on a 24/7 basis.

Green without trying

The reuse of office buildings for apartments is an excellent example of practical green initiatives. These conversions resulted from a simple formula: empty buildings + tenant and purchaser demand for inner city apartments + competitive construction market + house prices beginning to rise = profitable development opportunity.

Many of the conversions didn’t necessarily focus on green building initiatives. But, by taking a dramatic load off the wider Wellington region infrastructure, they probably contributed much more than, for example, using the latest lighting and building services technologies.

When the supply of existing buildings suitable for conversion declined, and purchasers became critical of the shortcomings of conversion jobs, the focus changed to building new apartment blocks.

Turning green into business

At present, ‘green’ generally means all cost to business. However, this issue needs to be turned on its head. Instead of looking at business through green eyes, as we currently do, we need to start seeing green issues through business eyes.

We all have some level of personal and corporate responsibility to adopt a greener way of thinking and acting. The growth and success of the Green Building Council over the last 2 years is testament to how quickly the property and construction industry has embraced green thinking and included it in how they work and what they deliver.

New opportunities with more vacant buildings

As the new generation of office buildings are completed over the next 2–3 years, we are likely to see another generation of vacant office buildings becoming available for conversion to alternative uses. This presents the opportunity to combine the next cycle of converting office buildings to apartments with a better understanding of what makes a good green existing building. There is the potential to combine contribution to environmental causes with profitable property development business.

But what is a green, sustainable existing building conversion?

Basics of a sustainable building conversion

One of the challenges the Green Building Council initially faced was to translate the engineers’ detailed approach on assessing what makes a green building into language that politicians, property owners and tenants could easily relate to. A quick checklist of headings was developed to sell the message. These were:

  • energy conservation – half energy costs
  • water conservation – not a big issue yet
  • healthy environments – no nasty fumes or toxins and amenities to get fit
  • waste – reuse, recycle
  • materials – source from renewable supply
  • location – live, work and play next to the bus stop and railway station.

This ‘quick and dirty’ guide to creating a green building applies to new or existing buildings. It won’t necessarily get you points for a Green Star rating but it does provide a common sense guide to thinking green in the building context.

Must serve occupants well

Another test of a green/sustainable building is how well it will serve the occupants. Purchasers were often critical of some of the design shortcomings of early office-to-apartment conversions.

One criticism was that the building structure was not upgraded adequately and old building services (lift and ventilations systems) were left in place. Other problems included insufficient acoustic treatment between apartments, creating rooms little bigger than cupboards, using materials that were not very durable and doing minimal work in upgrading the exterior envelope to ensure weathertightness.

Broader perspective on sustainability

As a collective industry, we need to combine the next cycle of office to apartment conversions with a better understanding of what makes a good green building. This needs to be done in a way that addresses the traditional view of green building initiatives, as well as the concerns of the current occupants. It must also be done economically.

We will then have the potential to combine contributing to the environmental cause and creating profitable business opportunities in the construction industry. Only then can we be rightly proud of our contribution and our understanding of sustainability from a broader perspective.

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