Sustainable Retrofits ─ Post War Residential Towers in Britain

Presenting the state-of-the-art in sustainable retrofits in post war residential towers, this book captures and re-informs the current intense refurbishing process that is taking place in Britain, which is part of a global phenomenon happening all over the world, as cities upgrade their building stock in an attempt to comply with governmental emission reduction targets. The authors present inspections of 20 sustainably retrofitted social housing towers, analysing their aesthetic and technical modifications, as well as the shifts occurring in their social structure. The authors use over 200 full colour plans, elevations, photographs, maps and illustrations to beautifully support the statistical and analytical information collected. Finally they include interviews with some of the architects who designed the retrofits, residents and key stakeholders to inform the conclusions.

Asterios Agkathidis studied architecture in the AU Thessaloniki and the RWTH Aachen, completing his postgraduate studies in Advanced Architectural Design at the Staedelschule Architecture Class (Frankfurt). He became partner at b&k+ (Cologne), then worked for VMX architects (Amsterdam) and OMA (Rotterdam). He later founded the architecture and research laboratory a3lab Frankfurt-Thessaloniki and has been planning and realizing projects around the world since then. His work has been published, awarded and exhibited widely. Today he holds a Lectureship for Digital Design at the University of Liverpool. His 6th book "Generative Design" will be published by Laurence King Publishing in January 2016.

Rosa Urbano has been working on sustainable architectural design through the exploration of emergent materials and technologies for the past ten years. Her work has been funded by institutions like RIBA, Fulbright, Fondation Le Corbusier or Harvard Real Colegio Complutense, and industrial partners like Guardian Glass or the Spanish Association of Ceramic Tile Manufacturers. Rosa studied and researched in the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is presently Lecturer in Architecture and Head of the ECALab (Environmental Ceramics for Architecture Laboratory) at the Liverpool School of Architecture. Her book Elements of Sustainable Architecture will be published by Laurence King Publishing in 2016.