Critically Engaging The Past To Build A More Just And Sustainable Future

Abstract

As the effects of the climate emergency and dwindling planetary resources force a paradigm shift within architecture away from demolition and new construction towards renovation and adaptation of existing sites and buildings, it is becoming clear that both architectural practice and education will have to evolve and adapt to a context in which the vast majority of our built environment already exists. Any approach to designing with the past, however, cannot ignore how buildings embody both material and immaterial heritage as products of the processes of exploitation and extraction that led to the current crises, meaning that our built heritage represents part of both the cause of and solution to the situation in which the practice of architecture, and society in general, now finds itself.

This paper identifies and explores the intersecting challenges faced by contemporary students and practitioners of architecture through the prism of a practice no longer premised on tabula rasa but grounded in adaptation and reuse. In order to bridge the perceived gap between historic preservation and creative adaptation, the paper undertakes a critical analysis and re-evaluation of the concept of heritage. It posits that unlinking heritage from traditional associations with strict conservation can emancipate the architect, allowing an understanding of buildings not as artefacts frozen in time, but living structures that can evolve and adapt to changing needs. By way of illustration, the paper looks to a number of projects by hybrid practitioners currently active across research, education, practice and legislation whose work rethinks what it means to engage with the existing. A critical discussion and comparison of these case studies offers new perspectives on adaptive reuse theories and practices, thereby helping to ensure that current and future practitioners are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to work successfully in this changed – and continually changing – reality.