Old Buildings, New Designs

Architectural Transformations

Charles Bloszies

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781616890353
• eBook ISBN: 9781616892012
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Design

Increasingly, architects are hired to design new work for existing structures. Whether for reasons of preservation, sustainability, or cost-effectiveness, the movement to reuse buildings presents a variety of design challenges and opportunities. Old Buildings, New Designs is an Architecture Brief devoted to working within a given architectural fabric from the technical issues that arise from aging construction to the controversy generated by the various project stakeholders to the unique aesthetic possibilities created through the juxtaposition of old and new.

For Courtney

The Architecture Briefs series takes on a variety of single topics of interest to architecture students and young professionals. Field-specific and technical information are presented in a user-friendly manner along with basic principles of design and construction. The series familiarizes readers with the concepts and technical terms necessary to successfully translate ideas into built form.

Also in this series:

Architects Draw

Sue Ferguson Gussow, 978-1-56898-740-8

Architectural Lighting: Designing with Light and Space

Hervé Descottes, Cecilia E. Ramos, 978-1-56898-938-9

Architectural Photography the Digital Way

Gerry Kopelow, 978-1-56898-697-5

Building Envelopes: An Integrated Approach

Jenny Lovell, 978-1-56898-818-4

Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques

Lisa Iwamoto, 978-1-56898-790-3

Ethics for Architects: 50 Dilemmas of Professional Practice

Thomas Fisher, 978-1-56898-946-4

Model Making

Megan Werner, 978-1-56898-870-2

Philosophy for Architects

Branko Mitrovic, 978-1-56898-994-5

Image Credits

All images courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted on image page or as listed: Cover: Philip Vile; 22: Gilly Walker (Creative Commons licensed on Flickr; http://www.pixellated.typepad.com/); 27 (bottom): Ian A. Holton (Creative Commons licensed on Flickr; http://www.flickr.com/people/poeloq/); 59: Brother Randy Greve (Creative Commons licensed on Flickr; http://www.holycrossmonastery.com/); 100 (right): Flickr user _ppo

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© 2012 Princeton Architectural Press

All rights reserved

15 14 13 12 4 3 2 1 First edition

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.

Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Editor: Megan Carey

Designer: Jan Haux

Special thanks to: Bree Anne Apperley, Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek Brower, Janet Behning, Fannie Bushin, Carina Cha, Tom Cho, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Linda Lee, Jennifer Lippert, John Myers, Katharine Myers, Margaret Rogalski, Dan Simon, Andrew Stepanian, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bloszies, Charles.

Old buildings, new designs : architectural transformations / Charles Bloszies. — 1st ed.

p. cm. — (Architecture briefs series)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-61689-035-3 (alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-61689-201-2 (digital)

1. Architecture—Aesthetics. 2. Buildings—Repair and reconstruction. 3. Buildings—Additions. I. Title. II. Title: Architectural transformations.

NA2500.B575 2012

720.28’6—dc22

2011015979

Table of Contents

Foreword, Hugh Hardy, FAIA

Preface

Chapter 1

Old Buildings

Appeal of Old Buildings

Familiar Idioms

The Urge to Preserve

Buildings Have Finite Useful Lives

Not Everything Old Is Good

Interventions

Chapter 2

Sustainable Urban Environments

Critical Components for Urban Sustainability

Reuse and Repurposing of Old Buildings

Public Policy

Will Smart Growth Take Place?

Sustainable Design Implications

Aesthetic Implications

Chapter 3

Design Propositions

The Question of Context

Lessons from History

Design Integrity

Contrast

Critical Viewpoints

Exemplary Work

Chapter 4

Project Execution

Stakeholders

Expectations

Design Difficulties

Building in the Already-Built Environment

Successful Execution

Chapter 5

Case Studies

Case Study Selections

Small Interventions

Dovecote Studio, Haworth Tompkins

Hutong Bubble 32, MAD Architects

Bar Guru Bar, KLab Architects

Ozuluama Penthouse, Architects Collective, at. 103

Il Forte di Fortezza, Markus Scherer and Walter Dietl

Major Additions

Knocktopher Friary, ODOS Architects

Walden Studios, Jensen & Macy Architects

Contemporary Jewish Museum, Studio Daniel Libeskind

Morgan Library, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Moderna Museet Malmö, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

CaixaForum Madrid, Herzog & de Meuron

1 Kearny Street, Office of Charles Bloszies

Hearst Tower, Foster + Partners

Repurposed Buildings

Village Street Live-Work, Santos Prescott & Associates

Selexyz Dominicanen Bookshop, Merkx + Girod Architects

California College of the Arts, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, KMD Architects, Jensen & Macy Architects, David Meckel

None of the Above

185 Post Street, Brand + Allen Architects

Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière, Édouard François

Recycled Batteries, Office of Charles Bloszies

Afterword

Notes

Acknowledgments

Hugh Hardy, FAIA

This is an important book for anyone concerned about the future of architecture. Our media culture presents buildings from the perspective that their importance comes from being new, with a preference for works that are unlike anything seen before. Instead, Charles Bloszies has put together an incisive and broad investigation of nineteen projects from all over the world that show thoughtful ways in which new buildings draw their importance from their relation to old. His is a generous survey of an extensive and diverse range of design possibilities. More than a handsome publication of designs, however, this book is also a considered exploration of a subject vital to the profession, one that should encourage great discussion.

Bloszies’s text investigates why old buildings appeal so strongly to the public and the resulting challenge this represents to contemporary design. Conflicts between public policy concerning landmarks law and sustainable design are also factors he explores with clarity. No professional jargon mars his prose, and his goal “to explore successful design approaches for visible interaction between new and old” is admirably realized.

Architecture only exists once it is built. Future architecture must be spoken of with drawings, images, or digital information. Buildings, however, can occupy the present and also speak to us about the past. Although apparently static, their uses change, and their activities ensure they never remain new. Some even become so redolent with historical content they are made into museums and deliberately kept the same through detailed preservation. As an aesthetic ruse, some are even added onto in imitation of the original. This book assumes a more vigorous premise, using change as the vehicle to introduce new ideas, new ways of building. Furthermore, Bloszies cites how this can be accomplished without bowdlerizing the original, careful to respect the values of those who built it.

By not being doctrinaire, a wide selection of examples instructs how to appreciate each project on its own merits. So much of contemporary architecture is created and judged as a standalone consumer product, but pursuit of these pages proves there is no single way to responsibly shape new in relation to old. Although it becomes obvious that the best old work incites the best new, no two projects offer the same aesthetic proposition, nor should they, claims the author. Instead, he argues for an exploration of ideas that celebrates continuity.

Bloszies provides valuable commentary on why the public’s response to historic preservation has been so intense and why it has caused modernism’s once tentative embrace of the public imagination to all but disappear. Today that revolutionary aesthetic often lies buried under a tidal wave of moldings, small-paned windows, sloping shingle roofs, and “vintage details” that provide only an ill-proportioned simulation of decorative skill. Instead, this book puts forward a bracing approach to how new can meet old, always assuming a degree of contrast. It cites examples in three categories: extreme, restrained, and referential. Each results from a consistent and carefully realized design premise chosen for its clari...

Table of contents

• Foreword