Replacing London's flagship Marks & Spencer store on Oxford Street with a new building will lead to lower lifetime carbon emissions than could be achieved with a retrofit, according to its architect Fred Pilbrow of Pilbrow & Partners.
"It's not always right to refurbish" old structures, Pilbrow told Dezeen, claiming that the contentious project is akin to trading in a gas guzzler for a Tesla.
"I would liken this to a discussion about a not-very-well-performing diesel car from the 1970s," he said. "And what we're trying to do is replace it with a Tesla."
"In the short term, the diesel car has got less embodied carbon," he added. "But very quickly, within between nine and 16 years, we will be ahead on carbon because our Tesla will perform better." New build beats refurbishment in operation
Pilbrow made the comments in response to widespread criticism of his redevelopment, which will see the 1930s Orchard House plus the two extensions that have been home to M&S for almost a century torn down in favour of a new mixed-use 10-storey building.
In a petition against the project, which has so far reached more than 2,000 signatures, Twentieth Century Society director Catherine Croft argued that choosing demolition over refurbishment was a waste of embodied carbon and "simply incompatible" with M&S's aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2045.
But Pilbrow says his practice worked with engineering firm Arup to as...