Back to Substance
It begins with a decision. Architects’ attitudes to existing buildings vary. Old and new may meet in joints, ruptures, and contrasts, or reconcile boldly in a healing synthesis that creates new spaces. But what if the building is not particularly old or historic, nostalgic or beautiful, and at first glance hardly seems worth keeping? That is precisely when intelligent design comes into its own. Many architects have long seen existing stock not as an obstacle but as material to develop.
In Paris, many car parks left empty by declining car traffic are being turned into housing. It sounds promising. In his essay, Andrew Ayers, a Parisian by choice for 30 years, weighs the pros and cons of this development. In Brussels, Maker Architecten reveal the potential of 1970s buildings with a circular refurbishment of a student residence: a flexible, modular exposed-concrete frame with reversible material connections. In Terrassa, Catalonia, Harquitectes have converted the halls of a textile mill into a day centre that retains the building’s defining character. Pinewood volumes complement the original structure. The inclusion centre was a 2026 EUmies Awards finalist and is featured on our cover.
At the 2026 UIA World Congress in Barcelona, a research team collaborating with Boltshauser Architekten showed how concrete can be reused as paving, street furniture, or structural material. Building on existing stock and reusing materials – with all the tensions between protected status and regulation, design and method, conservation and energy efficiency, the future and impermanence – are now part of architectural education. They lead our profession back to its core: recognising potential and realising what is possible.
Jeanette Kunsmann