Future Anterior​ Journal, Guest Editors: Fallon Aidoo and Daniel A. Barber

For this issue of Future Anterior, we welcome papers that examine historical or contemporary retrofitting practices and theories in relation to climate crises and energy challenges. Although “‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” served as a catchy public education tool for American environmental activists and American practitioners in the 1990s, adaptation of the built environment to the climate has deeper, broader roots than recent efforts to reduce new construction, reuse existing building stock, and/or recycle building materials. Retrofit, a theory of preservation practiced globally in accordance with diverse disciplines, politics, cultures and resources, is a crucial aspect of the world’s low carbon past and future.

The diversity of retrofit practices across time and space warrants decolonizing the concept of “theory” and democratizing consideration of its formation. We invite authors to thought leadership, by illuminating the ideas and projects of underrepresented practitioners or by exploring how and why certain works of design and development have become sites of disciplinary adoration and/or discursive attention. Together, these case studies of retrofit will shed light on the archive of preservation that motivates and mobilizes individuals, institutions and industries to invest, both financially and culturally, in smart growth and degrowth. 

We seek papers that fall into three categories - Retrofit’s Roots, How “Other” Retrofits Measure Up, and Retrofitting Conservation, each described below. We are interested not only in research-based texts appropriate for academic peer review in multiple disciplines (historic preservation, conservation, architecture, landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, real estate development, community/economic development), but also project, policy, and program evaluations appropriate for peer review by practitioners in these fields. Scholarly texts of no more than 4000 words (including references and footnotes) will undergo double-blind, peer review. Although authors are invited to submit papers on people, places, and projects across the globe, all submissions must be written in (or translated into) English for consideration. Only papers submitted to [email protected] by the deadline–06/01/20–in the formatting described below will be reviewed for publication.