_{If you're considering to buy but not sure if you should buy existing or building new, you might want to consider why I think purchasing an existing building is better than building a new one. In this article I'm discussing 5 reasons.}

From my position as architect, it seems to me that this might be a good time to share my thoughts about why I think people should consider buying existing than generally building new. This could apply for residential as well as commercial buildings.

Reason # 1: Cost

Cost is most obvious and important reason. It's important to know a square foot of an existing building will cost you less than a square foot of a new building. The reason is that in a new construction, the whole square foot materials is new. from subflooring to structure to finishes. everything is new. Also the labor cost is higher.

The existing building, on the other hand, may have had (before the purchase) some improvements done to it too (as is often the case; a new paint, new flooring, new kitchen cabinets, and so on). While subfloors, building envelope, structural elements, roofing materials, and so on are still existing.

In other words, the cost per square foot in an existing building is always less than that in a new construction.  

Reason # 2: Stressful Process

Building new construction is stressful. This conclusion has been my clients’ experience in different scenarios. Although quite exciting and full of anticipation, building a new construction (home, cottage, multi-unit or commercial building) is usually psychologically draining.

For example going through building a new home, usually causes differences of opinions among share holders. Differences cause arguments, and arguments cause frustration.

from excavation to footings, to foundation walls, to framing, to insulation, to utility installations, to cladding, roofing, all seems quite exciting, but sometimes intimidating too as some people can't cope with the levels of stress for 6-8 or 12 months.

As in any construction projects, there are two major components related to this process: keeping project on budget and on schedule. The project must be on time and budget in order to be profitable and doesn't lead you to financial stress and huge debts.

For the budget, bad design detailing is usually the major cause for cost increase. But there are many other elements such as making changes during construction, or unscheduled delays.

The construction schedule is related to the quality of design. If your designer didn't prepare good construction documents (blueprints), the delays are inevitable. The schedule would fall behind. However, its not only the designer's ability to facilitate and speed up work on site. This ia the contractor's. If any sub-contractor didn't show up, you'd be loosing money. The general contractor's absence is even worse than the subs. Some GCs have several projects at hand so they dedicate limited time to each which could lead to major delays.

‍Reason # 3 – Functional Programme Changes

The functional program is your needs' list expressed in space requirements. We tend to think that the functional programme is timeless since it accommodates your needs today. The bad news is that it is not. It changes all the time. Your needs today will change tomorrow (so to speak).

As an example, if you have a big family, you'd probably need large space for gathering, living, dining, playing with large kitchen and breakfast areas, large TV room, and probably a 3-car garage and so on. In a few years time, you'd surprise yourself by finding out that all of this space is now empty!.

Conversly, if you have a smaller family, you might think that the functional programme is quite sufficient today but when your family grows, you'd need larger spaces, eventually a larger home.

Building new can create a problem in both scenarios because the layout which seem perfect today might be too rigid for any future change, or what we usually call lack of flexibility of the functional program.  

What I'm suggesting here is to consider the functional programme flexibility and think about it as a factor. An existing home might have a great potential for change that only you and your architect can envision. It is my view that an existing house or building can be much easier to reconfigure as a functional layout than a new building, and more feasible too.

Reason # 4 – Carbon Footprint

One of the most important reasons for me and a lot of other people is how construction impacts the environment. Building new has been heavily researched to be much less sustainable than existing structures, even if you do a lot of work inside an older home or building for a adaptive reuse or interior alteration.

This is simple to understand, if we know that renovation or retrofitting use less material than building from scratch. Renovation has therefore has less negative impact on the environment (unless renovation is so drastic that it is not economically, nor environmentally feasible) and building new is inevitable).

But why does using new materials mean bad impact on the environment? it is because new materials mean more extraction, manufacturing, transportation, dumping and so on. The bulk of this production process is much higher in new construction than it is for a renovation project.  

‍Reason # 5 – Aesthetic Degradation

Aesthetics are subjective. However, aesthetics is a cultural phenomenon as well. It is related to what's called the "trend". For me personally, I think aesthetics is also linked strongly to the character of the end-user or their philosophy.

The architectural character of the new home is usually more exciting. It's contemporary, clean, with high ceilings, more grandiose perhaps, with nice views, and generally, more impressive. If you're building a new home, your architect could design your "dream home" or your signature business building. That's true.

Its true that existing building do have stylistic and aesthetic issues; look old, down-trodden, and need "a lot of work" to improve aesthetics. However, they could also offer something in this regard.

When you build new the aesthetics might look contemporarty. But contemporary is ephemeral. The aesthetic value of your home might be different in a few years time and mostly degrade. Many people say that they don't like the aesthetics of their homes after a few years as they see new trend emerging.

Existing buildings' facade can be modernized. They could also be quite inspiring. You could upgrade the facades with new slick cladding, artistic interventions, add a new entrance, a new balcony, a glazed fence to protect older deck, top up with a second floor, to create a new entrance, add a nice feature on the outside and many more.

The point I'm trying to make here, is that you don’t want to feel “stuck” with an architectural style that looks trendy today but out-of-fashion 5 or 10 years down the line. There are very creative, sustainable, and innovative ways to modernize an existing building when your architect is creative and sustainable.

To conclude, I think buying an existing building and retrofitting it, is better than building a new one in general. There are at least five solid reasons for that; 1) cost, 2) less intimidating process, 3) more sustainable, 4) more flexible to accommodate future functional needs, and 5) more adaptive to anticipated architectural stylistic changes.

Buying an existing building and renovating it might be a better way for you to consider.

If you need to learn more, please check out our Rapid Project Planning Packagereport that you can download here for free. It contains a lot of usefulinformation about building a new project (or renovating) including cost andenergy optomization retrofits. Check it out here.  

https://www.resourcesfordesign.com/isd-planning-opt-in-1

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