Have you ever wondered what it would take to turn an office building into housing? In this episode of Fostering Our Earth 🌍, we explore the exciting world of modular construction to address the pressing housing crisis with Candice Delamarre, co-founder of Kit Switch.
Joined by co-host Shikha Srinivas, we discuss how Kit Switch’s modular design significantly speeds up the construction process, both for retrofitting existing buildings and for new buildings. A kitchen, for example, can be installed in just a day, minimizing disruption for tenants in existing apartment buildings undergoing renovation. This contrasts sharply with traditional renovation timelines that can take weeks, causing significant inconvenience and producing more waste.
This episode builds on our previous episode on embodied carbon, where we discussed how reusing existing infrastructure reduces embodied carbon. The emissions associated with the manufacturing of building materials like concrete and steel are substantial. By focusing on retrofitting, we can leverage the "carbon investment" already made in these existing buildings. Instead of demolishing and building new, which generates significant waste, retrofitting offers a more sustainable pathway.
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