A significant proportion of our work is with existing or heritage buildings. To approach a client's brief, the first step should be to analyse the existing condition and document what is already there. Once a baseline condition is established, a repair or infill strategy which maintains as much of the existing as possible helps to appreciate and acknowledge the history of each building.

 

In the 1910s, Marcel Duchamp explored the concept of an ‘as found’ condition through everyday objects and reinterpreted them as artwork. The ‘useful significance’ of an object, such as Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ or urinal is reinterpreted and a ‘new thought for that object’ is created (Howarth, 2000, para. 6). The Independent Group further explored this (including architects Alison and Peter Smithson) during the 1950s, who created artworks in celebration of the found state of the objects in focus, asking for viewers to scrutinise an object’s materiality and function. 

 

Within architecture, architects use an increasingly restrained and limited approach when intervening with historic buildings. De Caigny, Ertas and Plevoets (2024) explored a series of seven experimental projects in Europe, arguing ‘buildings are material relics that bear silent witness to the past’ which carry the ‘collective memory’ of several generations of users. The exposure of layers of demolition and damage alongside more recent additions results in the carcass of the building left exposed and the ‘collective memories’ of each occupier visually available. Focusing on the existing condition of a building leaves it exposed for interpretation and interaction, largely as it was found.

 

The Mechelen Library in Belgium by Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten utilises a design strategy which acknowledges years of dereliction and historic significance through the layers of peeling plaster and paintwork. The proposals utilise the space at human level for new interventions, offering an immediate tactile orderliness in contrast to the existing building’s vaulted, exposed, largely unaltered ceiling overhead.

 

Existing buildings hold a significant amount of embodied carbon in their fabric. Avoiding demolishing walls and other fittings which are in place and working around them within proposals results in a massive reduction in the amount of carbon used, both in saving the material from demolition and from using less new material to build.