About Rethinking Housing Refurbishment

Rethinking Housing Refurbishment takes a long hard look at current refurbishment standards and demonstrates just how much can be done to improve the way we renovate homes.

It aims to provide industry and homeowners with examples of best practice in sustainable housing refurbishment based on BRE’s flagship refurbishment project, the Victorian Terrace, and partner projects around the country.

Sited next to BRE's Innovation Park at Watford, the Victorian Terrace will house an Information & Training Centre where visitors will be able to learn about best practice refurbishment including the latest processes, materials and technological advances. Traditional crafts and skills will be taught in the Centre's workshops.

As a key part of the RHR programme, the team will be working in partnership with partners across the country, including the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders, The Prince's Foundation and the East Thames Group on a variety of other refurbishment projects – back-to-backs, terraced houses, a £50K refurbishment competition, Victorian Villas and so on. This aspect is particularly important as it means the sample data that will emerge can be validated as applicable to different types of housing and various sizes of budget.

At the end of the project, the lessons learnt and the technical/financial information gathered will be made available through reports and guidance for others to use. A regeneration cost modelling tool is also being developed to help the demolish or refurb decision making process.