Deep retrofit of a Victorian villa: A case study

Ronan Morris
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Ronan Morris: Wright & Wright Architects, UK

Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal & Valuation, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 57-78

Abstract: The Norham Gardens project for St Edmund Hall, Oxford is the College’s most ambitious building undertaking for a generation. The project will create a new academic campus within the North Oxford Victorian Suburb Conservation Area. Through a combination of new build contemporary architecture over three buildings and the deep retrofit of an existing 1890 Victorian villa (No.17), the project will deliver 127 student rooms and common spaces, set within a biodiverse and climate resilient landscape design. The project is driven by a holistic approach to sustainability, addressing social and financial considerations, embodied carbon, operational energy and biodiversity. This paper describes the building analysis undertaken and design methodologies used in the team’s deep retrofit of the No.17 villa, acting as a case study in sensitively upgrading a building of this typology using a whole building, fabric-first approach. The project is currently at RIBA Stage 5 with works progressing onsite at time of writing. Strip out of existing finishes, structural adaptions and new window install is complete, with internal wall insulation works now in progress. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.

Keywords: deep retrofit; fabric-first; sustainability; low energy; Passivhaus; conservation; heritage; Victorian architecture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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