‘good bones’ & changing skins
Most of the spaces we will be occupying in 2030 are those already built, and yet much of our existing housing stock was not designed to support the changing user needs of our diversely-abled population or our changing climate.
How can we work towards making our built environment more accessible and sustainable, while acknowledging the material and financial costs of construction? The solution is to develop strategies for retrofit that will preserve the ‘good bones’ or structures of our buildings while facilitating the changing of their ‘skins’ so they can better adapt to our evolving world.
Focusing on a typology of housing projects developed in Québec during the 70s, this project will explore the opportunities inherent in the process of renovation and retrofit of our existing housing stock with a focus on optimizing it for current and future accessibility and sustainability needs.