Architecture Reborn

Book excerpt: Architecture Reborn is a detailed investigation into the adaptation and conversion of existing buildings as a distinctive type of architectural design. In color photographs and plans, here are 44 international schemes that demonstrate that reuse is a positive - even imperative - way to achieve a forward-looking architecture. Renzo Piano has transformed the legendary Fiat factory into a cultural and commercial complex; a former public school in Long Island City, NY has become P.S.1 Institute for Contemporary Art; and a 1930s factory in Detroit is now the HOPE Center for Advanced Technologies. Rather than preservation, or deference to old buildings, the message here is transformation: a physical rather than historicist approach to constructing new form from old fabric. For architects, students, and all proponents of creative reuse, this is an essential collection of case histories and an important reference in keeping up to date with this fast-moving and often controversial area of design.