Wish You Were Still Here Postcards and Samples of Architectural Demolition

ABSTRACT

Issue no.54 of The Architectural Review (July/August 2023) opens with a crucial question: Should anything ever be demolished? and delves into the theme of demolition in contemporary architecture. The Keynote article, written by Joe Giddings, emphasizes that in the next 25 years, it will be essential to drastically reduce the construction of new buildings, and instead promote the retrofitting and adaptation of existing structures. This approach aims to reduce carbon emissions and maximize efficiency through the electrification of supply chains and the use of bio-based materials.
The issue also features a section called Demolition Postcards, with eighteen “postcards” dedicated to famous buildings that have been demolished or are in the process of being demolished. Each postcard includes a memory or commemorative thought, such as those dedicated to the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo or to the Hall of Nations in New Delhi. An additional postcard, curated by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, reflects on the need to reuse and regenerate the 223.5 billion square meters of surface occupied by buildings, emphasizing social and housing justice.
Finally, the issue presents the winners of the AR New into Old 2023 awards, which celebrate creative renovation projects. The winning project is Site Verrier in France, where an old glass factory has been transformed into an artistic and cultural center. The issue reflects on the need to rethink demolition as an opportunity to regenerate and reinvent existing spaces, rather than destroy them.

Should anything ever be demolished? This is the opening question that inspires issue 54 of the international magazine “The Architectural Review - AR” (July/August 2023) and structures its contents. The underlying theme within the pages of the issue is, as Built by Nature UK network leader Joe Giddings writes in the introductory keynote, that in 25 years fully new buildings will have to become a rarity and Portland cement will be consigned to history.

In the opening text entitled Demolish Nothing, Giddings clarifies what is at stake. In the contemporary framework, the life of the globe depends intimately on the oscillation of climatic disasters (hurricanes, storms, fires, rising ocean surface temperatures, etc.) and the energy crisis. For this reason, continues Giddings, the Science Target initiative (SBTi) has established a “global pathway for buildings” based on a radical reduction of carbon emissions. It is about triggering a wholesale transformation in the way buildings are constructed: a way that puts an end to demolition and moves readily towards retrofit-and-adapt approaches combining maximum efficiency, the complete electrification of the supply chain and the mass adoption of bio-based materials.

Not demolishing anything means giving new value to the built environment. According to Giddings, intervening on the existing with surgical precision means developing new knowledge and techniques in terms of vertical extensions, infills and functional and spatial reconfigurations. Despite the current world economic systems being punitive towards renovation – by giving, instead, new-builds a free ride – it is about implementing a paradigm shift and recognizing the need not to waste any more energy than has already been spent in the past on the production of our built heritage.

After the Keynote, the AR issue dedicates a section to the so-called Demolition Postcards with the evocative title Wish you were still here. This is followed by eighteen “postcards” each dedicated to a well-known building or site that has been demolished or is in the process of being demolished. Authors sign the postcards dedicating a personalized thought to the building, in some cases a memory, in others a message of condolence or a concise biography of the artifact that sounds like an eulogy.

The postcards feature a symbolic photo of the demolished architecture on the front and a message on the back, complete with the address and stamp. They include the Nakagin Capsule Tower (1972-2020) in Tokyo with a text by Aric Chen, the general and artistic director of Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Hall of Nations (1972-2017) in New Delhi commemorated by Randhir Singh, a photographer exploring South Asia’s modernist heritage, and the Tsõrepré cultural and geopolitical center (18th century-mid 20th century) in Mato Grosso whose destruction to make way for soya bean crops is witnessed by Brazilian architect Paulo Tavares.

The nineteenth postcard, curated by scholar Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, is dedicated to the 223.5 billion square meters of the Earth’s surface currently occupied by buildings. Malterre-Barthes argues that this figure constitutes an “immense portfolio of human habitat”. Not a single square meter of this highly processed material should be demolished but, instead, redistributed, adapted and regenerated in the light of social and housing justice, emancipation from oppressive forces and over-imposed property boundaries.

To complement the critical reflection on demolition, this issue of “The Architectural Review” collects the winning and commended projects of the 2023 AR New into Old awards. Launched in 2017, the award celebrates relevant samples in which the creative ways buildings are adapted and remodeled to welcome new contemporary uses. The winning project is Site Verrier in Meisenthal, France, realized by SO-IL and Freaks Architecture. In the article, urbanist and writer Justinien Tribillon highlights how the new project allows the former glass factory to continue to evolve and host artistic and cultural activities. The renovation consolidates its identity as a place of production by employing a unifying and distributive architectural element: the concrete wave, in fact, introduces a leveling device into the uneven topography while also offering entrances to the building. The site hosts a museum of glass art as well as spaces for manufacturing activity.

The other featured projects are Rieckshof in Uckermark, Germany by Helga Blocksdorf Architektur (highly commended) Laguna México in Mexico City, Mexico by Productora (highly commended), Kaomai Museum in Chiang Mai, Thailand by PAVA Architects (commended), Cowshed in Devon, UK by David Kohn Architects (commended) and Khlongsan Studio in Bangkok, Thailand by Everyday Architect & Design Studio (commended).

Demolition has been a design tool since ancient times. It is largely assumed that demolishing corresponds to bringing the narrative of abandoned architectures or places back to day zero. Today, we are aware that this is no longer the case and that, for example, demolishing often costs more than rebuilding, adapting, working on portions, replacing damaged parts or materials. Not least, to speak of a “former factory”, an “abandoned barn” or a “disused plant” does not fully capture the regenerative potential of artifacts, but rather clips the wings of the development of a more ambitious and lasting project. While, thinking of the same artifacts as a “residential community”, a “productive museum” or a “diffuse educational center” could trigger a conceptual repositioning and allow them to pursue a new lease of life.