In Melbourne, it’s predicted that by 2040, 90 per cent of the buildings in operation will have already been constructed today. As carbon emissions remain a critical concern and resource costs continue to rise, what was once a poetic notion of designing through reuse has become an urgent imperative. Exploring the adaptive reuse and retrofit projects of other architects not only provides inspiration but also valuable insights into innovative practices in this field.
Below is a selection of resources featuring diverse reflections and approaches to adaptive reuse by international architects and critics. Look for these books in your university library to inspire your next studio project.
Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisited
by Richard Murphy
Italian architect Carlo Scarpa spent nearly 15 years transforming Verona’s medieval Castelvecchio into a contemporary museum. With its detail-oriented design and material craftsmanship, many consider the project a masterpiece of intuitive and timeless reinvention. Richard Murphy’s book provides an in-depth description of the building’s history and Scarpa’s work, including many detailed drawings and photos from throughout the building’s life.
Flores & Prats:
Sala Beckett: International Drama Centre
by Richardo Flores
Flores and Prats’ Sala Beckett reimagines an abandoned social club in Barcelona into a vibrant theatre and creative space. This book documents the practice’s unique process, cataloguing mosaic tiles, doors, windows, lamps, ceiling roses and then cutting and pasting these elements around the building into new arrangements. The renovation peels back layers of building’s social and physical heritage to create a space that embraces its multiple identities through time.
Architecture Repurposed
by Office Winhov
Office Winhov, the acclaimed Amsterdam-based architecture firm, combines heritage architecture with contemporary additions. Architecture Repurposed reveals seven of their projects. The book documents the practice’s careful approach and innovative methods, while asking the reader to think about the value of and thoroughly understand existing buildings to respectfully redevelop them.
Modern Heritage
by Ana Tostões (ed.)
Modernist buildings of the 20th century are now becoming heritage icons. In Modern Heritage, architects and art historians discuss challenges in the preservation of these buildings. The book features lesser-known refurbished modernist examples including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and Juan O’Gorman’s house for his father in Mexico – interventions guided by respect for the authenticity of the architecture and based on substantial research.
Building for Change:
The Architecture of Creative Reuse
by Ruth Lang (ed.)
Ruth Lang’s book features a collection of buildings that have been “creatively recycled” while also including spaces that are design to be dismantled and repurposed later. A highlight project is Architecten De Vylder Vinck Taillieu’s Caritas Psychiatric Centre in Belgium, a hospital turned public space. The book also shows that reuse should be a process that engages with communities; centring the users of the building as much as the building fabric. It also reveals the tensions between sensitive reuse and accessible design – where existing spaces does not also maintain the inequities sometimes embodied in them.
