Expert Opinions

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EXPERT OPINIONS

Ellen Dunham-Jones, architectural educator and co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia, one of the most influential urbanists of all time[69] , is a leader in the topics of retrofit, redevelopment and adaptive reuse. Her focus is mostly on suburban redevelopment, and the hybridization of old, classically suburban American structures with new, urban activities, to best meet the changing needs of different groups of users living in the suburbs. She does not limit herself to a certain scale of adaptive reuse - she is eager and invested in the reuse of buildings, street fronts and entire districts.

She believes that TOD should be intrinsically linked with all development - new, or redevelopment - but especially with regards to the ever growing far-flung suburbia. TOD is what can sustainably and affordably connect users from different backgrounds and social accessibility levels, to the spaces architects create to meet their specific needs.

Ellen also encourages - apart from reuse, where a building simply redefines what it holds within - infill development. These abandoned parking lots, areas of asphalt no longer in use and just as empty as their building counterparts are also just as feasible to build on.

Peter Love, John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Infrastructure and Engineering Informatics at Curtin University, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and a Chartered Building Professional, is an advocate of adaptive reuse as well but his focus is more on the technicality of analysis and choice. What makes a building ideal for adaptive reuse? How could a certain typology of building be better adapted? These are the kinds of questions he seeks to answer.

His overall stance appears to be one advocating the awareness of possibility and opportunity that adaptive reuse can present; his response to survey results (obtained in research) which express doubt towards the viability of adaptive reuse shows as much.

Sheila Ireland, senior architect and LEED AP, among other achievements, is another expert. She holds a stalwart stance on adaptive reuse. When asked about whether historic buildings are more or less desirable to deal with as a designer, given the restrictions applied on such projects, she replied that, design-wise, the restrictions of historic and non-historic building redesign are quite similar.

She appreciates the value of historic features, and looks forward to navigating through to the optimum strategy of treatment in terms of design. She believes in the specific characteristics of each and every space that set it apart from all other spaces.[70]

Lina Bo Bardi, (1914-1992), a modernist Italian architect born in Italy, is considered to have been one of the earliest practitioners of adaptive reuse and sustainable architecture in the past century, with over 10 adaptive reuse projects (restoration, renovation, building upcycling) in her collection of work.

To her, everyday ‘common’ buildings were just as worthy of preservation as the historical, classical buildings of the Renaissance past. She famously remarked, upon entering a factory in 1978, “What we want is precisely to maintain and amplify what we have found here, nothing more.

She argued to preserve the details and styles of the ordinary building, no matter how brutally functional and far removed from beauty.

“‘To violate an era by embalming it in plaster means ignoring the fatigued and painful process of humanity.

”[70]