Popular in Europe, retrofit improves the quality of buildings that already exist and can even change their type of use. Know more!
Have you ever seen those fences that cover an entire building and, when they disappear, reveal the same façade with touches of modernity? Or have you noticed lighting interventions on the exterior of historic buildings? These are just two examples of retrofit , a type of intervention in civil construction that is increasingly popular around the world.
The definition of the Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas for this concept is precise: remodeling or updating of the building or systems, through the incorporation of new technologies and concepts, normally aiming at valuing the property, changing its use, increasing its useful life and operating efficiency and energetic.
For anyone wondering if Loft carries out this type of intervention in its apartments for sale , acquired in buildings that are already standing in the noblest neighborhoods of São Paulo , the conceptual answer is: no. These are profound reforms, ranging from the skeleton to the finishes, which maintain the residential use mode – and change, for the better, the quality of life.
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What is retrofit?
Retrofit, architecture and history
Examples of facade retrofit
How a retrofit project works
Retrofit example: House Zero at Harvard
Retrofit and sustainability: does it make sense?
What is retrofit?
A word that unites terms in Latin and English, retrofit means, etymologically and respectively, to move backwards and adjust. In Portuguese, this concept can be thought of as “reconversion” or “modernization” of a building , either through its adaptation, updating, customization or requalification.
This type of intervention is carried out in buildings to integrate improvements and changes in use that can be of a wide variety of natures – from the complete transformation of the façade to a new lighting project, consumption optimization, protection against extreme weather events or updating the air-conditioning system. conditioned.
And it doesn’t have to be a building. In 2012, the century-old Tower Bridge, one of the most iconic points in London, underwent this type of intervention for the installation of an LED lighting system that reduced its energy consumption by 40%. Professionals spent six months carefully walking over granite parapets and holding on to steel straps to install 5,000 meters of cable in time for the Queen’s Jubilee.
The iconic Tower Bridge shines for the Queen’s Jubilee: the lights were installed shortly before, via a retrofit process, without changing its appearance
Retrofit, architecture and history
First popularized in the US and Europe, this type of intervention is closely associated with the protection of historical heritage , which often does not allow changes to listed structures. And, while restoration consists of recovering a good state of conservation, a well-executed retrofit not only preserves the original structure of the building (if necessary), but also adds modernity in terms of raw materials or equipment .
“Europe is not like Brazil, which has a lot of room to grow. One of the solutions that urban planners and architects understood was to reuse and readjust existing buildings to make better use of spaces according to the contemporary way of life” , explains Aline Balazina, architect at Loft .
She explains that, in the case of old buildings, this takes into account not only new infrastructure, but also attention to basic points of current projects, such as including accessibility and escape routes. “It is necessary to add issues that were often not addressed at the time.”
And even the Empire State Building in New York, one of the most famous buildings in the world, has already undergone this type of intervention. Made just over a decade ago, it proves the big difference in today’s civil construction thanks to technological and material development. In this case, the new windows are 400 times more efficient – and the previews were only from the 1990s!
In this TEDx video, one of those responsible for the Empire State retrofit talks about the retrofit process and savings of up to 40% in energy resources (over US$ 4 million per year)
The retrofit option may also have financial incentives. In addition to protecting the architecture, the retrofit has the ability to meet the housing demand in areas where there is no more space to build new buildings, but there is no lack of potential customers waiting for a good housing opportunity. In summary, a good location and a property compatible with modern housing.
In the video above, understand the internal process of the Martinelli Building, built in the 1930s, which underwent a retrofit: architecture is among the most iconic in São Paulo, about Flooring installation in Jacksonville Beach
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Examples of facade retrofit
There are several possible types of facade retrofit, ranging from impeccable restorations on the outside and modernizing on the inside to radical transformations.
In 2016, the French-Brazilian studio Triptyque concluded a work in Rio de Janeiro in the RB12 building, on Avenida Rio Branco. Built in the 1970s, it gained a bioclimatic façade with windows arranged like diamonds that play with the refraction of light. Photovoltaic panels were installed on its side and a hanging garden on the terraces and balconies allow for natural shade and optimized thermal control – a very useful option in such a hot city.
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