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Das Kollektiv B+ (Brandlhuber+) zu Gast!

Legislating Architecture

The Preservation Issue

Within the scope of the HouseEurope! initiative, this research and design studio will focus on the subject of preservation. We’ll explore its history and principles, as well as relevant European legislation. The goal is 1. to understand what we consider ‘valuable’ and 2. to reframe preservation as a tool for social-ecological transformation.

To “preserve” (German: “erhalten”) means to maintain an existing structure. Fundamentally, preservation (“Erhalt”) emphasizes the adaptability of buildings, in contrast to protection (“Schutz”), which aims to retain a building’s original state. This perspective on preservation introduces concepts like adaptive reuse, where aging structures are repurposed while preserving their core characteristics.

How much can be changed often depends on guidelines set by preservation bodies and local authorities. Some rules allow only minor changes, while others permit larger transformations, provided the building’s primary character remains. Which boils down to the question: what are the main characteristics that we want to preserve, and how do we value them? In times of climate change, can we still afford to preserve buildings exclusively based on their cultural value - their aesthetic, their style, their relevance - when culture brought us into that dilemma in the first place? How do we give value to the things often overlooked or seen as ordinary: the banal, the worthless, the ugly? And in a dynamic world, how can preservation maintain an openness that allows for future development of buildings and structures, that will fall out of use (see: https://obsolete-stadt.net/forschung/)?

Collaborative Studio & Goal

To unpack this complex subject, between theory and practice, we will collaborate in a joint studio between TU Innsbruck (Chair for Architectural Theory, lead by bplus.xyz (Arno Brandlhuber, Olaf Grawert, Jonas Janke, Roberta Jurčić, Jolene Lee) and TU Vienna (Chair for Gebäudelehre lead by KOSMOS architects: Artem Kitaev). Together with his students, Artem Kitaev built a research and teaching practice focused on the adaptive reuse potential of existing structures. Within this framework, students pinpoint the material and design possibilities of existing buildings, proposing adaptation and renovation as alternatives to demolition and new builds.

In our collaboration, we’ll broaden their approach by introducing two additional components: legislation and narrative design. Consequently, we’ll pair students from Innsbruck and Vienna, who will collaboratively address the same building from varied perspectives. The buildings will be presented at the beginning of the semester and are prototypical typologies found across Europe, ensuring each structure has a counterpart (sibling) in both Innsbruck and Vienna.

Together, students will formulate a strategy for each typology/pair, comprising a design proposal and a narrative grounded in legislation, on how to adapt and repurpose the existing building.

> Further information and introduction video

Group Work, approx. groups of three students: 2 Vienna + 1 Innsbruck

Lehrveranstaltungsprüfung gemäß § 6 Satzungsteil, Studienrechtliche Bestimmungen.

Time: Wednesday, 10:00-16:00

Start: 04.10.2023 / Studio Architekturtheorie