Project R-12780

Meaning and Translation: Towards a conceptual toolkit for adaptive reuse. (Research)

The immediacy of the climate crisis and its attendant intersecting challenges has necessitated a paradigm shift within architecture away from the endless cycles of demolition and reconstruction that characterise the long-dominant tabula rasa approach, towards more ecologically and socially sustainable practices that focus on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. This research project aims to develop a conceptual toolkit that can be used in practice and education. The research specifically focuses on the question of how textual and non-textual sources can contribute to the emerging theory of re-use and its relationship with new architectural interventions on the one hand and conservation/restoration discourses on the other. Convinced by the value of engaging with other disciplines as a way to broaden and enrich existing knowledge, the research aims to draw in narratives from a range of non-architectural sources, in order to situate adaptive reuse within contemporary discourses and to develop a theoretical foundation that can complement and support this nascent and necessary practice.

01 November 2021 - 31 October 2023