Specializing in retrofitting existing building stock to become more energy-efficient, self-sufficient, and resilient, NYC-based studio Co Adaptive develops strategies to minimize the embodied carbon of structures, aiming to reduce the net operational energy of their projects to zero.
In this Ones to Watch Interview, Ruth Mandl – who cofounded the firm with Bobby Johnston – discusses the importance of specifying materials that are part of closed-loop systems, how to reduce waste by designing for disassembly and why it’s necessary to design construction systems that can be adapted.
Why did you launch your own design studio?
RUTH MANDL: Bobby Johnston and I launched Co Adaptive because we wanted to fill a gap that we saw in our profession, and because we each had a passion and a particular itch we needed to scratch. I was disillusioned by how little climate change was factored into design decisions. Bobby wanted to work on developing architecture that was highly functional and responsive to its occupants and the environment. Combined, our dedication to these interests were the catalyst to start our practice.
Photo: Donilee McGinnis
Bobby Johnston and Ruth Mandl.
What’s your approach towards building projects that are good for people and the planet?
At Co Adaptive we believe that collaboration will always take us further, and that if each team member is given the agency to bring their particular interest and determination in tackling climate change to the practice, we will all be stronger for it. As such, we are constantly questioning how we can push further and do more; we look at systems, not just issues, and we hold each other accountable to never become complacent with what we are designing and manifesting.
We believe in working with what already surrounds us. Our preference for and expertise is in working with existing structures and improving their operational energy usage – ideally ensuring that they don’t use more energy than they can produce on site. Our goal is to extend the lives of older structures for another century and beyond. In doing so, we are very aware of what we are adding to achieve this. We made a pledge to forgo all types of foam insulation in 2019 and are continuously working to improve the material standards we specify, evaluating what goes into our projects for how it affects people and our planet along the entire life cycle. We strongly feel that as designers we need to be paying attention to the systems that our decisions and selections affect, rather than just looking at them as singular moments.
Photos: Naho Kubota
Cover and above: In transforming a former metal foundry in Brooklyn, NYC, into a new developmental space for theater artists, Co Adaptive applied low-carbon design thinking. The studio repurposes removed building materials to create architectural features while minimizing the use of virgin materials. In addition, mass timber from sustainably forested vendors within North America is used to create structural insertions.
What are the biggest hurdles in achieving energy efficiency in adaptive reuse projects? And how do you overcome them?
Our team has found that significant energy reductions on an existing building can only be achieved when care is taken to address air tightness. This, in turn, means careful and attentive building – from sealing up cracks in the existing masonry structure, to running membranes, tape sealing and finding the smallest holes. This work is labour and time intensive. I think unfortunately over time we humans have become more accustomed to a very fast, slapdash way of putting our buildings together, and so it is the care and attention to detail – true craft – that we want to see return to our building industry. (It is worth mentioning here that I do think the US is far behind much of Europe in this regard.)
It’s this desire that prompted us to start Co Adaptive Building a year ago now. By becoming contractors ourselves – and more involved in the holistic process of building – we feel we have a better chance to use good design to solve for the ways in which retrofitting existing buildings can be inefficient.
Photos: Peter Dressel
Co Adaptive significantly reduced the operational energy use of an 1889 townhouse by insulating its envelope on the interior of the building and placing triple-pane windows and exterior shades. A solar array was installed on the roof to offset the electrical load of the building and power an electric vehicle charging station. During the renovation, ornate woodwork was removed but kept for later refinishing and reinstallation.
How can buildings become more resilient to change beyond optimized material and energy usage?
At Co Adaptive, we are currently very excited about, and diving deep into, designing for disassembly – designing so dismantling is already conceived from the beginning, to help adaptation become less wasteful. In a world where we think in those terms, we can continuously adapt our buildings as they change to fulfil new uses. Our city becomes a material library, and we can forgo waste altogether.
Who do you believe should be held accountable for a building’s environmental impact?
If individual manufacturers were held to be accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products it would increase maintenance and quality of products. It could change the economics of ownership and lead to more access and affordability in construction.
Photos: Peter Dressel
During the restoration of a 1950s building in Lynbrook, Long Island, which is now home to the new headquarters of a Swiss freight logistics company, Co Adaptive discovered 5-m-high floor plates that had been hidden by 2.5-m dropped acoustic ceilings. The team exposed all the additional space to create an airy and light feeling.
The construction industry involves many stakeholders. What will it take to align their sustainability ambitions?
This is a big question and I think we could answer it from several directions. Aligning on sustainability ambitions can be tricky, particularly because they are often associated with what is perceived as a larger cost. I say perceived cost, as there is a cost to doing something less sustainably too – but unfortunately that is hard to quantify and may ultimately not be paid for by the same party. While policy comes around to helping us make the argument for those costs existing already, we have found that it helps to bring stakeholders together by showing and projecting costs and laying out some decisions for them in those terms.
We therefore think that designers and architects hold a lot more burden of that responsibility than we like to admit to ourselves. We are orchestrating the project as it comes together, and as such we have the opportunity to educate the clients, the developers and the builders on why certain decisions are important and how they affect the lifecycles of the projects we work on.
What are your hopes for the future of spatial design?
Our hopes are that the industry will move away from the creation of the ‘new’ and towards the realization that our expertise is required in reusing, reinventing and reinvigorating. Aside on working to become better builders to understand that process more holistically, our practice is working on the prototype of a wall system for interior retrofit applications that is fully demountable and would help simplify some of the problems we currently see in the process of air-sealing and insulating existing buildings. Ideally, we would like to solve for the fact that we need to achieve this faster, without the need to waste resources, and in such a way that these systems can be maintained and adapted over time, with minimal waste. We see design as a collaborative practice that works to solve today’s biggest challenges and would like to see the entire profession come on board.
