Chipperfield’s MC Piccinelli on how retrofit can enhance creativity

Episode 53. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Rachael Owens.

AJ Climate Champions is back, with a new series focusing on retrofit. Our guest today is Maria-Chiara Piccinelli, associate director and project lead on the London School of Economics’ Firoz Lalji Global Hub (FLGH).

In the episode she explains how each building element requires one-to-one conversations to determine the best reuse, and that the contractor must be on the same journey. After deconstruction at FLGH, up to 70% of bricks were broken or crushed powder.

Piccinelli argues that a new design aesthetic, a hyperlocal vernacular, can emerge from the specificity of the building, its materials and its location. She cautions against the standard default response of using timber, insisting that all materials should be explored.

Sponsored by Holcim Foundation Awards.

For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.