Course No.: 848136
Team: Prof. Marjan Colletti | Catalina Tripolt | Peter Massin | Oliver Hamedinger
“The most environmentally benign building is the one that need not be built because it already exists” (Grammenos and Russel, 1997)
“The greenest building… is the one that is already built.” (Elefante, 2007)
Retrofitting, renovation, conversion, modification, alteration, reorganization, upgrading and enhancement of existing buildings are crucial strategies to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in architecture and building construction. However, there are also unconventional strategies to achieve these aims. The studio will investigate assembly strategies for relocatable building parts. These fragments should be taken from various abandoned or soon-destroyed buildings. Edifices inevitably change over time. After a few decades, they often reach the end of their life cycle and lose their purpose. This could be a considerable potential as a resource for new buildings. Transcycling will challenge the conventional approaches of recycling and upcycling, which are criticized for reducing the value of the materials (downcycling). We will try to identify conceptual strategies critically and also the tasks of the potential to work with medium-scale building fragments. Therefore, the students are asked to develop their notion of contemporary and sustainable assemblage strategy with the help of digital tools (CAAD, AI, simulation, procedural computing, MR, etc.) and fabrication methods (robotic fabrication, 3D Printing, CNC, etc.).
The aim of the design studio is to design a mixed-use building which is structurally a reassembly of fragments of existing buildings. The design process involves analyzing the existing structure in terms of structure, potential spaces, transportability, etc. The performance of the design actively contributes to a positive ecological footprint by integrating the technological advances of our time. The design’s spatial program addresses and provides access to the full spectrum of people, regardless of their backgrounds and opportunities.
