Premier Place, City of London, London

While retrofit previously offered an opportunity to turn buildings around fast for quick returns, it is now also an essential strategy in mitigating climate change. This project on Devonshire Square has retained much of the embodied carbon in a 1990s block of back offices. A compromised circulation sequence was simplified by placing lifts in an existing atrium, the reception opened up to double height, and the volume of the trading floors leveraged to give flexible workspace. Glazed lower floors give identity at street level, and setbacks above are reinvented as outdoor terraces.