Architectural Design V-IX: Transform - Reuse - Extend (M. Guyer)

Abstract

Under the title Convert - Reuse - Expand, we explore the architectural, social, structural, spatial and pictorial potential stored in the inventory and try to activate it for the project. It's about dealing with the existing building, converting something that already exists, reusing it and expanding it with new buildings in relation to the existing building.

Objective

Ability to develop a design from an idea, a concept, to a fully evolved project; to continually self-critically question the intermediary stages in this process; and, simultaneously, to find an individual design methodology and design stance.

Content

In the course of architectural history, constructing further onto the already existing was always a natural part of building activity, its significance only temporarily relativised during the era of classic Modernism. In today’s architectural work, design assignments involving antecedent buildings are of great importance once again, and will only become ever more significant in the years ahead. Due to the increasing scarcity of building land, the pre-existing will become more highly valued as a significant cultural, social and architectural resource for the shaping of the future. In their handling of this architectural stock, architects have to develop an understanding for an existing structure, to trace the design thinking of their predecessors, and to interpret these factors and then evolve them further. It is precisely this unwieldiness in that which exists that can act as an impulse for ideas for new solutions. Under the title “Transform – Reuse – Extend” we explore the architectural, social, structural, spatial and imagery potentials that are stored within the pre-existing in the attempt to tap them as stimuli for the project. The goal is on the one hand to grapple with this architectural inventory, to transform something existing, to reuse it; and on the other hand to amplify it with new constructions that relate to it. The test beds are six sites from different epochs with varying architectural structures: the Floos spinning works in Wetzikon and the former Maggi factory in Kemptthal emerged in the nineteenth century; the Zurich abattoir and the ABB workshop 550 in Oerlikon were built at the beginning of the twentieth century; the Tremil apartment tower and the former Waldhaus Dolder hotel originate from the 1960s and 1970s. On the industrial sites, the prior uses have become obsolete, necessitating strategies for intelligent reutilisations to regenerate them. In the case of the two residential buildings, the present occupancy needs to be reinterpreted. Additionally, all of the building sites require a compatible amount of new usable floor space, entailing new constructions in the form of extensions (both horizontally and vertically), remodelling and insertions. If the pre-existing has to accommodate new uses, then interventions are necessary that can potentially range from simple repairs to total reshaping. The presence and the quality of the existing buildings represent a constant challenge to the new. In this process, particular importance has to be given to the parallel nature of the old and the new and their respective imageries. The exercise “Image – Form” traces the existing both playfully and intuitively, teaching a true understanding of the art of seeing. The exercise “Image – Vision” comprehensively demonstrates the concept of visualising the project in a succinct presentation. Talks about and visits to reference projects round out the design process. Finally, the projects will be discussed in the closing critiques with guests and the chair, covering a range of aspects running from the conceptual idea and the treatment of the existing substance to urban-developmental and architectural presence and the quality of the exterior and interior spaces.

Resources