Act 7 : Adaptation or Refurbishment of Building


In this weeks lecture, I've asked that will I choose to practice refurbishment or adaption. The first idea that comes to my mind is, it is very obvious that I will first demolished it and then rebuilt a new development depending on want types of development is more demanding or having the best feasible study.

But after this lecture and seminar, only I am aware that in the UK their government actually encourage their communities to actually choose to refurbish their property instead of adaptation. But compare to my country Malaysia, our trend tends to only focus on adaptation, unless those are being rated as conservation property by UNESCO.

In my personal opinion, I do agree that refurbishment is a good practice to the environment. However to me, I still feel that the most important factor whether which option to choose, is still the condition of the building. Because an obsolete condition building will cost almost the same at the end of the day.

So if in the future when there are similar question were asked, i will suggest that they first carry out a sustainability survey, then I will consult the client on the condition of the existing building and explain to them what will be the risk that he might faced and then only seek for his decision whether does he still want to proceed or not.

In this week's lecture and seminar has greatly enhanced my knowledge not only on the understanding of what is refurbishment and adaptation of a building, but also other factors and considerations that might affect my decision making on whether to adaptation of a building which I feel will help me a lot in my future days. Therefore it is help me to move one step closer to achieve my CIOB professional competencies in terms of Decision making, as well as Assess Environmental Risk Factors, Managing Health and Safety, and Managing Costs the cost the will incurred.