Multidisciplinary views on conversions, renovations and sustainability goals
Adaptive reuse is seen as a key to sustainability and more successful decarbonization. This panel examines the case for sufficiency through the use of conversions, renovation and adaptive reuse — collectively, umbau in German — with a multidisciplinary panel representing the various areas of expertise needed for effective transformations of existing buildings and places. Sustainability is cast as a structural quality in an overarching sense — systematically gauging the effects of planning decisions on project lifecycle overall. As seen in the companion exhibition, a selection of gmp’s 60-plus umbau projects demonstrate how structures can be flexibly used, reused, expanded, and sustainably fortified.
About the panelists:
Dan Bergsagel
Sustainability Lead, sbp
Dan Bergsagel is sbp’s Sustainability Lead and an engineer in their New York City office. He is a Visiting Scholar with the Circular Construction Lab at Cornell University, and an active contributor in developing a more sustainable construction industry for New York. He is a member of the Structural Engineering Institute’s Sustainability Committee, Chair of their Circular Economy Working Group, and a member of the IStructE Sustainability Panel.
Tobias Keyl
Associate Partner, gmp
Tobias Keyl is an Associate Partner in gmp’s Berlin office. He has successfully managed several largescale buildings from competition to realization and is currently overseeing projects in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Tobias’s work focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration towards sustainable projects: In 2020 he was part of the industry Advisor Group at Harvard University Graduate School of Design on the topic “Future of Air Travel”. Since 2021, Tobias is part of gmp's global sustainable design steering group.
Joann Gonchar, FAIA, LEED AP
Deputy Editor, Architectural Record (Moderator)
Joann Gonchar joined
Record in 2006, after eight years at its sister publication,
Engineering News-Record. Before starting her career as a journalist, she worked for several U.S. architecture firms and spent three years in Kobe, Japan, with Team Zoo, Atelier Iruka. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a LEED accredited professional and is licensed to practice architecture in New York State.
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