Industrial Reuse
How design of reuse is able to steer the level of continuity with, or discontinuity from, the past and how individual creativity transforms into a dialectic solution with its specific context, are the core matter of this research.
The phenomenon of conversion of former industrial buildings has grown exponentially and in various scales since the 1960s. This trend doesn’t seem to have ended. The aura of wide-open spaces, exposed metal structures and remarkable light conditions has |
generated an industrial aesthetic that cannot be dismissed and it is maintained as long as possible in projects of reuse, thus making them popular. This modus operandi has generated clichés and successful cases have become ‘models’ to reproduce all over the world. And this design attitude extends to the entire industrial complex. Moreover, the vulnerable and unstable conditions of these sites can lead to opposite and extreme design approaches: on a one hand, an excessive ‘protectionism’ in order to continuously
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maintain the status quo; on the other hand, a new development that makes tabula rasa of the area.
This work has resulted in the book The Making and Remaking of Dismissed Industrial Sites (Alinea, 2014). It focuses on the design of reuse of abandoned industrial sites and its implication with aesthetics, history, memory and contaminated soils, offering criticism on these specific subjects. |
The term ‘reuse’ is intimately linked to the word ‘design’: design that aims to discover, to make use of and safeguard our architectural past. The proliferation of projects and concrete interventions make evident the variety of conceptual approaches in reuse: by adopting, integrating or rejecting the idioms of the existing building or sites designers or planners express their personal style. However, these projects display also the different cultural backgrounds of the countries were the projects are conceived:
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their different approach to history and memory, to technology, to descriptive or prescriptive rules, to influences by local or national procedures, to adaptation to building/technical requirements,…
Starting from projects already realized or about to be started, this seminar will provide a debate during which speakers from different European countries will engage a discussion on the different languages of reuse. How do cultural differences influence the approach to this theme? |
Can we talk of one common language?
As educators of future designers or theorists, can we envision a platform of discussion that goes beyond ‘differences’? Certainly the theme is complex and a few-hour seminar cannot comprehensively address all issues. Nevertheless, the discussion will offer the opportunity to schedule future meetings able to propose an unprecedented weaving among the languages of reuse. |
Irene Curulli © 2020 Industrial Waterways