THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF THE CITY: UNCOVERING THE "SITE SPECIFIC NARRATIVE"

K. David

 

Adaptive reuse implies a certain number of givens in the postulation of an architectural insertion; primary to these givens are spatial, structural, and organizational patterns that must be identified or mapped. At the scale of the city, to construct or map the site from the perspective of adaptive reuse suggests that, as an historic document, there is value to identifying and preserving, representing, or denying its various patterns. Within the identified precinct of the city a specific site becomes the canvas on which the identified and re-presented urban patterns are constructed. On site, this construction produces a building that, through a process of manipulation of landscape, space, and form, constructs site from these various maps of the city. Through a small-scale effort involving only one building and one site, without an all-encompassing master plan, the city can be interpreted and represented so that the city, site and building may benefit from a coherence of place.

A piece of architecture inserted into an urban site becomes intricately involved in a dialogue with its context; in this dialogue, addressing historical and cultural issues becomes as important as addressing issues of topography. Architecture engages in a site specific narrative in which the existing urban condition, with both its visible and invisible characteristics, serves as a background for further urban development. This background represents a specific set of linguistic devices which describe resolutions to an intricate web of spatial, historical, cultural, social, and topographical challenges that have been considered in an effort to develop and sustain a viable urban condition over time. Each city, and each site within it, has its own language; and it is precisely this language which must be engaged for an urban insertion to acquire meaning beyond that of a self-referential element.

In this way architecture becomes a filter for understanding the development of a built environment over time, and takes its place as another agent of the relation of past episodes of human endeavors, called history. Architectural history may then be understood as an evolution of architecture, over time, as it pertains to the linguistics of a site specific narrative; the way in which architecture reflects an understanding of the human condition at any given point in time. Through time, larger movements in architecture can be picked out from the nearly infinite number of responses to as many different situations; these movements are recognized historically as periods, styles, or more recently, as any number of "isms'" which loosely bind areas of architectural thought.

Uncovering the myriad of components which make up the site specific narrative is of paramount importance; not as a means to decide which style or which "ism" is more appropriate to address an urban problem, but to arrive at a more site specific conclusion by looking carefully at a site and to listening to its narrative. The means to uncover a site specific narrative, are a quasi-scientific method for the evaluation of site; as a way to inform the subsequent proposal of an architectural intervention. By studying the way in which buildings affect and/or infect different sites [the conscious decision not to posit a narrative is just as important as an informed and aggressive proposal], it may be possible to come to some deeper understanding of a specific contemporary urban condition; and thus be in a better position to propose an architectural insertion which will be able to comment critically on this ongoing narrative.

Site has a history all its own; a history of human and animal occupation found in the layers of sediment beneath the surface of the earth, a geological history of the effects of plate tectonics, ice cap advance and retreat, and weathering, a history recorded over time by individuals seeking to document their travels and encounters, a history found only in the stories told between people, and a history indicated superficially by manipulations in the built environment. Not all these individual histories/narratives will carry the same weight for the purposes of architectural intervention; yet all these histories do contribute in some way to the site specific narrative, and thus understanding their relevance to site must be a prerequisite for architectural design.