Introduction by Zack Semke

This collection brings together our latest set of Insight Briefs created inside the Reimagine Buildings Collective. These briefs emerged from the Reimagine Retrofits iteration of our Reimagine Labs, which took place in the fall of 2025—small, practitioner-led “think and do tanks” where members organized themselves around some of the most urgent questions in deep energy retrofits. 

Across these briefs, you’ll see a shared focus on delivering high-performance retrofit outcomes at scale, with each Lab bringing a distinct lens to the challenge and remaining grounded in building science and the realities of practice.

Some briefs explore emerging tools and workflows, including the promise (and limits) of AI in retrofit decision-making—especially the need for better shared datasets, clearer governance, and professional judgment to keep outputs accurate and responsible. Others focus on durable, field-ready strategies for resilience, like fire-risk retrofits, passive survivability, and moisture-tolerant, vapor-open assemblies using bio-based materials, with one brief in particular offering a notably thorough treatment of nature-based performance in retrofit assemblies. And some address the constraints practitioners face every day: phased retrofits; sequencing; homeowner education; and the craft of helping clients prioritize comfort, health, safety, and long-term performance alongside energy and carbon.

My hope is that these briefs do two things at once: offer practical takeaways you can use immediately, and invite deeper collaboration so that what we’re learning in individual projects becomes shared knowledge the whole field can build on.

What stands out to me most in this work is the quality of attention it reflects. These briefs show a community thinking carefully, questioning assumptions, and testing ideas against real projects and real constraints.

I hope you enjoy reading—and that what’s here helps inform your next conversation, your next decision, or your next retrofit.

– Zack Semke
Host, Reimagine Buildings Collective