WHY RENOVATING EXISTING BUILDINGS IS THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE
And What It Actually Takes

There is a quiet shift happening in architecture. For decades the profession celebrated the new — the blank site, the clean model, the building rising from nothing. That era is ending. The most significant architectural work of the next twenty years will happen not on empty plots but inside buildings that already exist: ageing apartment blocks, underused commercial floors, historic Altbau structures with thick walls and complicated histories.

This is not a trend. It is a structural reality. Germany alone has millions of square metres of existing building stock that needs to be adapted, upgraded, and reimagined — driven by energy legislation, changing demographics, and a growing understanding that demolition and new construction carry an enormous environmental cost that we can no longer ignore.

 

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The complexity nobody talks about

 

Renovating an existing building is, in many respects, harder than designing a new one. On a new-build project, the architect controls the conditions. In a Bau im Bestand project — working within existing structures — you are solving a puzzle that was never designed to be solved. The walls are in the wrong place. The ceiling height is insufficient for modern ventilation. The electrical system is forty years old and runs behind surfaces you cannot touch. The building is listed, or occupied, or both.

Threading new systems — heating, ventilation, electrical, data — through a building with constrained floor heights, load-bearing walls, and existing finishes requires a level of technical precision and spatial intelligence that goes well beyond standard architectural practice. Every decision has a consequence somewhere else. A pipe route that seems logical on plan hits a structural beam in section. A suspended ceiling that solves the ventilation problem kills the proportions of the room.

This is the work HAA&D does, and has done since 2014 across Berlin and Europe.

 

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What makes a good 'Bau im Bestand' architect

 

Not every architect is equipped for this kind of work. It requires deep familiarity with construction methods and building physics across multiple eras — knowing how a 1920s Berlin Altbau was built, what its walls are made of, how it behaves thermally, where its tolerances lie. It requires the ability to read a building before designing in it: to understand what is fixed, what is flexible, and what is possible within the constraints that cannot be changed.

It also requires a particular attitude toward design. In existing buildings, restraint is not a limitation — it is the method. The best renovations are the ones where the new work feels inevitable: where the spatial logic, the material choices, and the technical solutions all read as if the building was always meant to arrive at this point.

 

 

The environmental case

The embodied carbon argument is now well established: the carbon already embedded in an existing building's structure is a resource. Demolishing and rebuilding wastes it entirely. Renovating intelligently — improving envelope performance, upgrading systems, replanning layouts — retains that embodied value while significantly reducing operational energy demand.

For clients who care about sustainability in a serious rather than superficial sense, choosing to renovate rather than replace, and choosing an architect who knows how to do it properly, is one of the highest-impact decisions they can make.

 

 

What to look for when choosing an architect for renovation

 

If you are planning a whole-apartment or building renovation in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany, the questions worth asking any architect are: Have you worked extensively in existing buildings? Can you show projects where complex systems were integrated without compromising the spatial quality? Do you manage the full process — from concept and permits through to site coordination and handover?

At HAA&D, the answer to all three is yes. We work on complete renovation projects from €80,000 total investment, where the goal is a transformation that lasts — technically, aesthetically, and environmentally.

HAA&D is a Berlin-based architecture and interior design studio founded by Hagar Abiri. The studio specialises in minimalist design, Bau im Bestand, and the renovation of existing buildings across Germany and Europe. Get in touch.