Breaking the Renovation Cycle: Learning from Architectures of the Past for Low-Metabolism Building Design Today

Abstract

The paper develops new knowledge of patterns of building material consumption in renovation and adaptation cycles, to design new buildings to have a lower future material use in their use-stage. By comparing component lifespans and environmental impacts of material uses in the life of three cases in Copenhagen, Denmark, certain architectural characteristics were found to influence the levels of material use and sequences of change. The cases were: a preindustrial case (*1755) with multiple transformations of use, an industrialised case (*1972) and a control case (*1958) from right before industrialised building practices intensified in Denmark. Change patterns, material uses, and environmental impacts differed significantly across the three cases from preindustrial to industrialised building cultures. In the qualitative interpretation of the quantified material changes, the paper challenged Duffy and Brand’s models of “Shearing Layers of Change” and Design-for-Disassembly frameworks with a design principle focused on the relationships of component types and their “hierarchy of alterability”. This principle could be used in the design of new buildings and in transformation projects to meet shifting user needs while lowering the use-stage consumption of materials over a period of 200+years of use and adaptation.