Building Upon Building

Book excerpt: Forty-five contemporary European architects were given the task to design a fictional building expansion in line with the principles of the existing building -- a relevant question in an era when architecture increasingly seems to occur without the context being taken into account. The result is a collection of dialogues between contemporary architects and the past. A new generation of European architects is looking for rooted values rather than indiscriminate forms. Architecture as evolution, rather than revolution. How can the views that underlie the historical city be interwoven with the stories of the present? This question is answered in 45 designs and four essays.