DETAIL English 1/2010

Among the various tasks that architects have, the one with the most responsibility – the handling of existing structures – is taking on an ever-increasing importance. What does it mean for the architect’s image, though, if the majority of projects in the future are going to be renovations? What are the essential differences between new development and renovation according to the architectural concept? What are the basic approaches to renovation tasks?

Such questions are dealt with as an introduction to the magazine topic in the discussion part of this DETAIL issue. Six architects, who have great experience in dealing with building restoration, offer their different points of view – even up to the point of “everything is modification”.

The buildings that are documented in detail in this issue show the entire spectrum of possibilities that renovation offers: from the strategy of the historical staging that the architects from Atelier Kempe Thill Studio followed in the redesign of the crafts museum in the former prison colony of Veenhuizen, up to the creation of new space through the addition of elements like the roofing of the courtyard at the Technical University of Prague by Vyšehrad Atelie, or the new interpretation of space like the conversion of a building section into an open space at the Dornbusch church by Meixner Schlüter Wendt. When new elements complement existing ones as well as, for example, Nieto Sobejano’s conversion and extension of the Mortizburg in Halle, new, multi-layered room constellations are created, which respect the qualities of the building’s existing elements and enhance the experience.