Understanding Demolition

s will be reviewed by the editors to ensure a varied, yet integrated selection of papers around the topic. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper (6000-7500 words), which undergoes a double-blind review process. Buildings & Cities is an international, open access, double-blind peer-reviewed research journal. Its focus is the interactions between buildings, neighbourhoods and cities by understanding their supporting social, economic and environmental systems. More information can be found online: www.buildingsandcities.org & published papers are found here: https://journal-buildingscities.org Open access and Article Processing Charge Buildings & Cities is an open access journal and has an article processing charge (APC) of £1200. If you do not have institutional support, please contact the editor when submitting your abstract. We endeavour to assist those without funding. Questions? If you have a question, please contact: Richard Lorch richard@rlorch.net or Satu Huuhka satu.huuhka@tuni.fi Timeline Abstracts due 07 October 2022 Full papers due 15 February 2023 (NB: authors can submit sooner if they wish) Referees’ comments 15 April 2023 Final version due June 2023 Publication October 2023 (NB: papers are published as soon as they are accepted) References Abrahamson, D.M. (2016). Obsolescence: An Architectural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226478050 Architect’s Journal. (2019). RetroFirst. https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/retrofirst Gilbert, P. (2009). Social stakes of urban renewal: recent French housing policy. Building Research and Information, 37, 638–648. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210903186638 Heinonen, J., Säynäjoki, A. & Junnila, S. (2011). A longitudinal study on the carbon emissions of a new residential development. Sustainability, 3, 1170–1189. doi: 10.3390/su3081170 Kuittinen, M., & Häkkinen, T. (2020). Reduced carbon footprints of buildings: new Finnish standards and assessments. Buildings and Cities, 1(1), 182–197. http://doi.org/10.5334/bc.30 Röck, M., Saade, M.R.M., Balouktsi, M., Rasmussen, F.N., Birgisdottir, H., Frischknecht, R., Habert, G., Lützkendorf, T., & Passer, A. (2020). Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation. Applied Energy, 258, 114107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114107 Sunikka-Blank, M. & Galvin, R. (2012). Prebound effect: the gap between performance and the actual consumption, Building Research and Information, 40(3): 260–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2012.690952 Thomsen A., Schultmann, F. & Kohler, N. (2011). Deconstruction, demolition and destruction. Building Research & Information, 39(4), 327–332, https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2011.585785 Thomsen, A. & van der Flier, K. (2011). Understanding obsolescence: a conceptual model for buildings. Building Research and Information, 39(4), 352–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2011.576328 Thomsen, A., van der Flier, K. & Nieboer, N. (2015). Analysing obsolescence, an elaborated model for residential buildings. Structural Survey, 33(3), 201–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/SS-12-2014-0040

First, as the focus is shifting from buildings' operational energy consumption towards whole life carbon impacts, there has been a growing acknowledgement of embodied emissions (e.g. Röck et al. 2020). New build is inherently disadvantaged in this regard, as an existing building avoids further embodied emissions and waste generation. Second, the decarbonisation of energy supply is reducing the emissions from the in-use phase (Kuittinen & Häkkinen 2020), thus further increasing the significance of the embodied emissions.
Third, many existing buildings may already perform better than is the regular preconception (Sunikka-Blank & Galvin 2012) and there may be potential to reduce their consumption even further.
Fourth, due to differing temporal dimensions in which embodied and operational emissions are released, life cycle extension typically outperforms new build in the near future, i.e. in the timeframe most crucial to climate change mitigation (Heinonen et al. 2011).
Fifth, the existing economic arguments for demolition and rebuilding are contentious. Life cycle extension is typically more affordable for tenants, but redevelopment can create greater profits for the developer. Redevelopment increases property prices which often impacts negatively on affordability by displacing existing people and businesses. Not all incurred environmental, social and financial burdens are accurately converted into costs in our present economic system.
At the neighbourhood and urban scale, demolition of existing low-and middle-rise areas is often done to increase density. Denser urban structures in well-connected areas are believed to contribute positively to sustainability. However, the CO2 impacts for the two alternatives are rarely quantified in a satisfactory manner to account for embodied (both buildings and infrastructure) and operational (buildings and traffic) emissions and how they accumulate over time.
There is a pressing need for a wider and deeper understanding, but making comparisons is complicated and data intensive. Researching demolition and the prospects for its avoidance are further complicated by difficulties in accessing relevant data. Cadastral data on demolition is usually fragmented, not centrally collected and maintained, and/or lacks detail. Thus, different approaches and methods are needed in different contexts depending on the existence, availability and quality of data.

Suggested topics
The suggested topics for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

Briefing note for contributors
You are invited to submit an abstract for this special issue. Please send a 500 word (maximum) abstract to editor Richard Lorch richard@rlorch.net by 15 September 2022. Your submission must include these 3 items: • the author's and all co-author's names, institutional & departmental affiliations and contact details • the question(s) in this Call for Papers that the abstract and intended paper address • the abstract (300 -500 words maximum) defining the research question(s), scope, methods and results Abstracts will be reviewed by the editors to ensure a varied, yet integrated selection of papers around the topic. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper (6000-7500 words), which undergoes a double-blind review process.
Buildings & Cities is an international, open access, double-blind peer-reviewed research journal. Its focus is the interactions between buildings, neighbourhoods and cities by understanding their supporting social, economic and environmental systems. More information can be found online: www.buildingsandcities.org & published papers are found here: https://journal-buildingscities.org

Open access and Article Processing Charge
Buildings & Cities is an open access journal and has an article processing charge (APC) of £1200. If you do not have institutional support, please contact the editor when submitting your abstract. We endeavour to assist those without funding.

Questions?
If you have a question, please contact: