First published by InterPlan. This article was inspired by a 2025 study tour of Canadian cities organised by Urban Retrofit. The study tour brought a small group of senior UK planners and academics to visit retrofitting exemplars in Halifax,...
First published in URBAN DESIGN Journal by Urban Design Group. Following a visit to the project in June 2025 as it neared completion as part of a Canadian case study tour for Urban Retrofit, authors Gareth James, Dermot O'Kane and James White reflect...
Converting vacant offices into houses is gaining traction as a means of addressing housing affordability in Canadian downtowns. We argue that this adaptive reuse practice is a form of ‘urban retrofit’ …
November 2025 marked the end of the first year of Urban Retrofit and, with the Festive Period quickly approaching, I wanted to share some reflections on the activities we have been engaged in over the past twelve or so months. ...
This article, first published in The Conversation (20 March 2025), from Professors James White and Andy Inch, discusses how "build baby build" raises important questions about the government's parallel ambition to reach net zero by 2050.
In this blog, Associate Prof Hannah Hickman and Prof James White reflect on their recent trip to Trondheim, Norway for the Sustainable Built Environment conference
This systematic evidence review sets the stage for Urban Retrofit’s collaborative programme of data collection, analysis and lesson sharing with planning, property and community partners. Based on a systematic literature mapping exercise, which...
The UKRI-funded URBAN RETROFIT project officially launched at the beginning of October 2024 and kicked off with a project partners’ workshop that explored what our partners understand ‘urban retrofit’ and ‘net zero’ to mean.