Upcycling: Reuse and Repurposing as a Design Principle in ArchitectureDaniel Stockhammer (Editor)Triest, March 2020

Paperback | 6-1/4 x 8-1/4 inches | 204 pages | 230 illustrations | German/English | ISBN: 9783038630463 | $54.00

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Exploitation and destruction of the environment call for an inevitable paradigm shift as regards our resource consumption: ?innovative? building will have to break away from the dogma of new build. We need to reconsider the existing building stock as a wealth of resources and ideas, just as we should understand recycling and upcycling building stock as architectonic potential.
New approaches in architecture reveal a trend towards concepts of the frequently used but theoretically and historically rarely defined term upcycling. In that context, one often forgets that the history of building has also always been a history of, firstly, recycled and upcycled building materials and components, and secondly, of building knowledge and building styles. Comprehending buildings as a part of a social change process poses a challenge to our current habits and modern concept of unambiguity, seclusion and authorship of architecture. This publication explores the potential of historical concepts of upcycling ? the qualitative recycling of buildings and building components ? and confronts them with new developments in architectural and building practice. Importantly, the authors look into the question of whether and how new solut...