Retrofit 25: What's Stopping Us? Exhibition Opens at The Building Centre

On 31 March 2025, The Building Centre and the National Retrofit Hub (NRH) announced the opening of Retrofit 25 – What's Stopping Us?, a powerful exhibition exploring the barriers and solutions to retrofitting our built environment. Open to the public until September 19th, the exhibition is hosted across the Building Centre’s main and window galleries.

This exhibition explores the solutions that are helping us navigate barriers and uncover opportunities in retrofitting our built environment. As we face the pressing challenges of climate breakdown, economic instability, and social inequity, Retrofit 25 will inspire visitors to consider what’s stopping us from making retrofit happen.

By exploring key themes, Retrofit 25 highlights how we can overcome the barriers to retrofit—showcasing existing practical and innovative solutions. Each theme addresses crucial ways to help create built environments that serve the needs of current and future generations. The exhibition examines eight essential themes:

• Communities – The role of engagement, tenure, and trust in delivering retrofit at scale.
• Hearts & Minds – How culture, behaviour, and attitudes influence retrofit adoption.
• Jobs – Addressing skills shortages, workforce development, and diversity in retrofit careers.
• Carbon & Materials – The impact of retrofit on carbon reduction, material reuse, and sustainability.
• Innovation – The role of technology, data, and new methodologies in advancing retrofit.
• Money – Overcoming financial barriers, funding mechanisms, and economic incentives.
• Ethics – Justice, fairness, and the role of retrofit in ensuring equitable housing and community well-being.
• Whole Value – Redefining success in retrofit projects beyond cost to include health, well-being, and long-term benefits.

Alongside the eight exhibition pods where case studies and real-world examples can be explored, Retrofit 25 features a ‘house without walls’ demonstration space. This installation invites visitors to explore solutions and technologies designed to enhance the energy efficiency of homes. As visitors engage with the demonstration space, they are encouraged to consider how each product can transform the way we consume and conserve energy.

The exhibition is accompanied by a dynamic event programme, featuring panel discussions, workshops, webinars and networking sessions designed to drive collaboration across sectors and accelerate retrofit at scale.

At the launch event on March 26th, Laura Broderick, Head of Partnerships & Programmes at the Building Centre, officially opened the exhibition, thanking partners and sponsors for their contributions and highlighting the collective effort required to drive retrofit forward.

Keynote speakers at the launch included:

• Hannah Jameson, Programme Director, London Councils – reflecting on the role of local government in enabling large-scale retrofit, and the need to move from fragmentation to collaboration, recognising that while each of us holds part of the solution, none of us holds it all.
• Anna Moore, CEO, Domna Homes and Trustee, Built Environment Trust – exploring innovative housing models and emphasising the opportunity to deliver retrofit in ways that create social value, advance sustainability, and help tackle fuel poverty..
• Lynne Sullivan, Chair, National Retrofit Hub – outlining the strategic vision for overcoming retrofit barriers and building industry-wide momentum, while highlighting the economic benefits of retrofit. Her remarks also marked two years since the National Retrofit Hub first launched, a fitting moment to return to the Building Centre and reflect on the progress made.

This exhibition marks two years since the National Retrofit Hub was launched at The Building Centre. Since then, the NRH has worked to bring the sector together, delivering key outputs, fostering collaboration, and driving action across the industry. Retrofit 25 represents the next step in this journey, deepening collaboration and expanding the conversation around the practical solutions needed to accelerate retrofit at scale. It is also the third year of retrofit themed programming in the Building Centre, having opened Retrofit 23: Towards Deep Retrofit of Homes at Scale in March 2023, and delivered Retrofit 24: The Reuse Agenda for Our Commercial, Cultural and Civic Buildings the following year.

To learn more and plan a vist see at Retrofit 25 – What’s Stopping Us? is free to visit at The Building Centre.

This article appears on the the NRH news site as 'Retrofit 25 – What's Stopping Us? Exhibition Opens at The Building Centre' date 31 March, 2025.

--National Retrofit Hub

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