Buildings Adapted

Dear Colleagues,

This issue of Sustainability is meant to collect relevant case studies that describe the fundamental adaptation of the physical shape of buildings in (post- and late-modern) times.

The built environment is subject to continuous change, driven by quickly shifting needs in terms of function and performance. Nevertheless, architecture is a profession that suggests permanence, almost inevitably, because it is guided by voluminous financial investments and is realised in concrete and stone. It does not automatically accommodate the flexibility that is required nowadays. Academically, the discipline of architecture distinguishes between typology, morphology and style to describe the basic entities that define a building. Typology refers to the basic categories of composition to distinguish between functional groups (e.g. housing, offices, factories, hospitals). Morphology refers to the formal arrangements of the shapes of buildings, both individually and in their mutual relation in a (urban) context. Style refers to the aesthetic and cultural conventions that guide the design of the shapes.

Until post- or late-modern times the adaptation of the building stock was often met by creating new buildings, at the cost of demolishing old ones. Such had certainly been the habit during most of the heydays of modernity, when the new was evidently preferred above the old. However, in recent years, the popular preference has shifted to maintaining existing structures and transforming them instead. This shift may have been generated by a growing general interest in issues of sustainability in general and in heritage in particular. This trend is highly relevant for the academic and professional fields of architecture. More than ever, architecture (at least in the Western world) is expected to search a basis in existing qualities, rather than introducing something completely new.

This is why this issue of Sustainability draws the attention to the consequences of the current trend of adaptation for the built environment. To limit the field of exploration we ask for recent (> 2000) case studies of built artefacts in transformation. Transformations can range from retrofit to rehabilitation.

The special issue encourages submissions that explore the trends that have caused the impulse for a transformation project, influencing the typological, morphological and/or stylistic coherence of the building under review. Moreover, submissions exploring the (design) approach that has been followed to create a successful result are encouraged. We do ask for case studies that show the mobilisation of a clear design strategy in order to alter an ineffective spatial composition into an artefact that is improved, without losing its architectural coherence. In contrast with that, we also ask for case studies of transformation projects that must be considered a failure; the academic exploration of architecture is not only served by successes.

We invite for contributions that describe vividly a case study and we encourage the incorporation of mixed-methods in the evaluation of the transformation (e.g. mapping, interviews, graphical analysis, drawing, re-drawing). We’re most interested in cases that have general relevance, for example, because the reviewed building is representative for many others or because the transformation process and the design approach involved can be considered exemplary.

Prof. Dr. Bernard Colenbrander
Ms. Lisanne Havinga
Guest Editors

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• transformation
• design strategies
• retrofit
• rehabilitation