From Retrofit to Futurefit: Reframing reuse for a resilient urban future

Tuesday 19 May 2026

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Studio Director, Practice Area Community Leader, Principal
Gensler

From Retrofit to Futurefit: Reframing reuse for a resilient urban future

Ahead of the inaugural Built World Summit this June, Gensler’s Harry Cliffe-Roberts opens a new thought leadership series exploring the future of city-making and the evolving role of the built environment. In this first piece, he argues that retrofit must be reframed as ‘Futurefit’, a forward-looking, design-led strategy for creating resilient, adaptable and high-performing urban environments. Drawing on projects including The Acre and 100 New Bridge Street, the article explores how reuse can unlock long-term environmental, social and commercial value while shaping the next generation of cities.

The evolution of our cities through responsible adaptation is now the defining design challenge of our time. ‘Futurefit’ reframes retrofit as a forward-looking, aspirational strategy – integral in creating resilient, high-performing urban environments.

Cities have and always will evolve and, in much of the world, the basis of their future is already here. Rather than evolution through consumption, the challenge becomes adaptation: transforming existing buildings and infrastructure to meet evolving climate, occupier, and investment demands. Retrofit, at scale, is no longer optional – it is both an economic and environmental imperative.

Yet despite this urgency, the language we use still positions it as backward-looking and frames the choice between reuse and new build as a binary one. Why is something so critical to our future framed as if it belongs to the past? ‘Futurefit’ offers a new perspective: past and future in unison, designing with the existing, for what comes next.

The Power of Language

Language shapes perception – and perception shapes value. In the built environment, “retrofit” can still imply compromise: a second-hand alternative to new build. That perception matters. It influences investment decisions, constrains ambition, and undermines one of the most powerful tools we have to address climate change.

Other industries have already redefined reuse as desirable and parallels should be drawn. “Pre-loved” is driving retail growth and circular repair models in technology are celebrated as smart, progressive and responsible.

Design should be leading this cultural change. Reframing retrofit as ‘Futurefit’ positions reuse not as repair, but as reinvention - a proactive, design-led response that embraces the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Redefining Progress

Good design looks different in today’s world, where performance, flexibility, and sustainability are non-negotiable. As an industry, we need to acknowledge the long-standing practices that have shaped the status quo, take ownership of the carbon decisions of our predecessors and learn from the rigidity of past good practice. We must make more of what we have by developing strategies that extend asset life, unlock long-term value, and create places fit for our collective future.

The future cannot be built on a model of replacement alone. Instead, we must make more of what we already have – extending the life of existing assets while unlocking new value and relevance through design.

Projects like The Acre in London demonstrate this shift in mindset. By retaining the vast majority of its original Brutalist structure and reworking it into a contemporary, community-oriented workplace, the scheme maximises the preservation of embodied carbon while reintroducing the building to the city in a more open and engaging way. The result is a distinctive, future-facing environment that draws strength from its past.

At 100 New Bridge Street, reuse was embedded from the outset as both a sustainability and commercial strategy. The building was approached as a material bank, with elements carefully catalogued and reintroduced into the design. From façade materials to internal components, what might traditionally have been discarded was instead reimagined – reducing waste, lowering carbon, and creating a richer, more layered architectural narrative.

These approaches signal a shift in the direction we need to go in, with reuse viewed as a driver of design quality rather than a limitation on it.

Designing for What Comes Next

Futurefit buildings are designed to evolve and respond to shifting occupier needs, emerging technologies, and a changing climate. This is necessary given the clear urgency and proportion of global carbon emissions attributed to the built environment. Nearly 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 are already standing today. Without meaningful adaptation, we risk locking in obsolescence at scale.

Adaptability is now the true measure of resilience. Some buildings will require deep transformation; others will benefit from targeted interventions. The approach may differ, but the mindset must remain consistent: past and future in unison, carbon and change at the core.

To be truly Futurefit, we must move beyond minimums, habits, and short-term rewards. This is how we strive to create buildings that remain relevant, valuable, and resilient; despite the permanent reality of change.

Futurefit is more than a rebrand – it is a call to action, challenging us to rethink both how design and how we define design that is deemed beneficial in an era shaped by climate urgency, resource constraint, and accelerating change.

When we shift both our mindset and our language, reuse naturally rises to the forefront of what good design looks like in today’s world – where environmental responsibility and architectural quality go hand in hand.