אדריכלות ישראלית

Architecture of Israel #

114

August

2018

building conversion

page

english readers

Assuming that function should somehow

affect form, then building conversion is

liable to generate architectural conflict.

This is due to the fact that determining

form before function is actually tantamount

to putting the cart before the horse.

However, in a situation whereby the

opening point constitutes a conflict,

one might see the situation as a drive

for creative solutions as it challenges

architects and designers with a far more

complicated starting point than that of

tabula rasa, whereby the plan mainly

constitutes the fulfilment of a conceptual

programme based on needs known in

advance.

When the starting point is conflicted, the

planning process involves an ongoing

dialogue between programmes - that of

the existing building, that of the new one,

and several others dealt with in this article.

Shortly before two familiar buildings,

symbolic of "a new beginning" were

planned – the Reichstag Building in Berlin

and the Pompidou Center in Paris - they

were subjected to fascinating artistic

activities designed and carried out by

architects. Although these actions were

seemingly unnecessary and useless,

or, perhaps, because of this, they are

important for the understanding of building

conversions and their potential.

TheReichstag isanexampleof anongoing,

unexpected historical transformation. Or

in the words of Norman Foster, who was

responsible for its reconstruction: "There

are very few buildings like the Reichstag

that have managed to pack so much

history, values and expectations into one

century." Planned for the Bundestag in

1894, it was burned down in 1933, almost

completely destroyed in 1945, conserved

research

building conversion

the programme & all her sisters

Meir Ben Shoshan

Promoting recycling and reuse for old buildings, the sustainability trend encourages

building conversion, giving new meaning to buildings that have lost their original

purpose. Although there is no absolute certainty that this results in energy saving and

a more effective use of space, the desire for a slow, controlled, evolutionary process of

architectural heritage, together with the need to prevent environmental pollution, has

tipped the scales, putting aside conventional cost and benefit calculations.

during the sixties’, and wrapped with

textile for a month in 1995 by Christo

and Jean-Claude, until construction work

began (completed in 1999).

Wrapping the building demonstrated the

power embedded in touching a political-

historical hulk, offering the public an

opportunity to reorganize their awareness

of past Germany (even Europe), towards

the symbol of a free and democratic

future.

The act of wrapping in itself was relatively

complicated as it required a planning

and execution similar to architectural

procedures, as well as in terms of the

correlation between form and content,

though it answered no real functional

need.

Twenty years before the Reichstag was

reconstructed, the

Beaubourg area of the

4th arrondissement in Paris

was about

to undergo a dramatic environmental

change; from an old residential district to

a cultural center that included the Centre

du Pompidou. Just before work began,

the American architect and artist, Gordon

Matta-Clark (1943-1978), cut three circles

between the living room, bathroom and

bedroom in one of the residential buildings

to be demolished in order to build the

Center.

Trained as an architect at Cornell

University and a student of Colin

Rowe and Eisenman – Clark explored

the question of deconstruction while

examining building boundaries as social

content. The work in Paris, 1975, was

based on a formal study of "cumulative

deficiency" whereby deduction facilitates

future accumulation. The three circles

enabled a different visual relationship -

a view from the apartment of the street

about to change and, simultaneously, a

view from the street of the interior of the

private apartment.

This work specifically indicates the

multiple meanings inherent in historical

buildings, while stretching the boundary

of skeletal stability until it collapses,

exploring light penetration into space, and

understanding the spatial relationships

between the building and its surroundings.

The transition from the virtual to the real

exposes layers of meaning, similar to the

"here and now" of artworks.

Here, like the Reichstag wrapping

before the dramatic, urban environment

transformation took place, the work does

not deal with infinite terms like good,

bad, beautiful, ugly, original or unoriginal,

characteristic of new planning, particularly

in conventional conservation procedures

that deal with before and after.

Both examples dialog with their context

in an interim period, whereby the

building and its use lose their familiar

environmental relationship, in terms

of artistic criticism that suggests

transformation. Both indicate qualities of

social meaning embedded in old buildings

before planning, in terms of the debate

regarding the relationship between form

and function.

In this light, there is almost no need to

ask: should the renovated building refer

to its previous, original and historical

programme, or rather, how could

intervention in a building expose and

respond to the structure's socio/spatial

qualities.

The intervention process in building

conversion undoubtedly provides an

opportunity to examine the gap (that