Dear Readers,
There are topics that resurface at regular intervals. However, the topic of renovation and restoration is not one of them. In fact, it has never gone away.
While the discipline tends to focus on the new, innovations, material developments, and visions of the future, a significant portion of actual construction practice has for decades taken place precisely where architecture is most challenging: in dealing with the existing built environment. Anyone who has spent enough time planning, building, renovating, or developing comes to understand a simple truth: A new building answers questions. But existing buildings pose them.
Existing Buildings as an Architectural Challenge
Perhaps that is precisely where its fascination lies. Existing buildings are contradiction in built form. They are both a resource and a constraint. They tell of past needs, technical possibilities, and societal ideas. And they have the unpleasant tendency to rarely behave as the building records promise.
More Than Sustainability
In recent years, renovation has increasingly been discussed in the context of environmental sustainability. And rightly so. The debate has centered on grayenergy .
I am convinced that this is often the most challenging form of design.
Sincerely,
Tobias Hager
Editor-in-Chief
t.hager@georg-media.de
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