Shaping a new life for the past

Shaping a new life for the past

Between making history and making a design

Cristiana Chiorino (PLN Project Foundation)

When we talk about the reuse of existing buildings, we must understand the design potential inherent in the historical-critical investigation. Repurposing an architecture from our recent past means considering its various specificities and, above all, understanding that the design process begins by appropriating the history of the building.

In the case of reuse, rehabilitation or restoration, the design process is fundamentally different. The starting point is the architectural work, which must be surveyed, described, auscultated with the methods and means of the historian and of the architect. For the conservation architect, the score is given, he is an interpreter.

The reuse and restoration project, in several respects, requires an inversion of the procedure followed in the design of a new construction. The designer's qualities lie, in fact, in his or her projective abilities: how to recognise in an object its vocation or, better, the various intended uses that can be eventually integrated based on a multiplicity of criteria.

In conservation, the design conveys the program; therefore, repurposing a modern building or infrastructure requires the highest degree the mobilisation of the designer’s projective endowments, focusing on the most diverse design alternatives of the architectural object. It demands a systemic understanding of the possibilities of use. The best solution consists in the identification of several program alternatives, possibly combinable and reversible, but all compatible with the potential of the object. Contingencies, needs and economic or cultural criteria will guide the choice between the bundle of solutions, while the historical-critical analysis and the various technical, safety and design prescriptions provide the measure to verify the consistency of the developed design solution.