Join us on October 24 for a conversation that has a great deal of questions.

As pressure grows to deliver new homes, workspaces and places for people to live, work and gather, replacing existing buildings with new, purpose-built structures can seem compelling. But what is lost through demolition, and what might be gained by adapting and reusing what is already there?

This lunchtime debate explores one of the biggest questions facing the built environment: is adaptation and reuse the better route to a sustainable, successful city — or are there times when starting again makes more sense?

The panel brings together three very different perspectives:

Catherine Croft, Director of the C20 Society

Cllr Jim O’Boyle, Coventry City Council

Leanne Tritton FRIBA, Don’t Waste Buildings

Few places provide a more fascinating backdrop for this conversation than Coventry. A city dramatically reshaped by post-war reconstruction, Coventry is home to Sir Basil Spence’s spectacular Cathedral and the later brutalist Elephant, now recognised as an icon of the city. Today, with major investment, growing housing demand, strong connections between London and Birmingham, and an expanding university sector, the city is once again undergoing significant change.

Alongside new development sit empty and underused buildings, raising difficult questions about design quality, sustainability, heritage and the identity of the city being created.

So what is the right approach for Coventry and cities like it?

What can new buildings offer that existing ones cannot? What is gained through demolition and redevelopment, and what is lost when historic fabric, embodied carbon and the stories of cities disappear?

And perhaps most importantly: could the buildings already standing be part of the answer?

The debate takes place in one of the region’s most celebrated examples of adaptive reuse, the RIBA West Midlands Award-winning Delia Derbyshire Building.

Come along, challenge preconceptions, hear different perspectives and put questions directly to the panel.

A conversation about the future of cities, and what should be carried forward.

Sponsored by Velux

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