The construction and built environment industries contribute significant amounts to climate change and waste.
As such we should be looking very carefully before knocking down buildings and dumping the debris in landfill, rather than exploring how a building might be re-purposed and re-used.
Suggesting a building is in a "poor state" and therefore can't be saved is usually a quite diaphanous cover for making more more money (at least initially).
Historically, Dunedin has been plagued by some very poor development, let's not do any more, especially when the stock of heritage buildings, the very things which attract visitors to the city, is diminishing.
In this case it isn't a lack of a sound structure, it's a lack of imagination and the majority of arguments to the contrary fail when you look around the world at examples of re-purposed buildings.
- Toby Scott
