Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The issue will kick off with an overview of the recent history of adaptable buildings by Peter Murray. This puts into context the legacy of thinkers like Stewart Brand (How Buildings Learn), Bucky Fuller and Jane Jacobs who trailed the way in this area. The next set of articles will deal with social change, shifts in the workplace and the economics and environmental benefits of refurbishment and designing loose-fit buildings vis-a-vis demolition and rebuild. These articles will champion the view that it makes sense to provide for multiple uses, acknowledging the continuing acceleration of change in every walk of life, whether it's in developed or developing countries. Ruth Slavid will look at the more common building vernaculars or typologies to show how flexible they are and also review successes and failures, while Ellen Dunham-Jones could review the adaptability of suburban development showing the opportunities for re-imagining the American sprawl. Alexi Marmot and Despina Katsakakis will examine how offices and educational buildings - whether new builds or rebuilds - can be designed to accommodate changing patterns of use. Simon Sturgis and Dan Epstein will look at the environmental case for preserving embodied energy in buildings, and the case for temporary buildings where the future is uncertain. The philosophical and political basis of these ideas will also be explored. Who should control our cities - architects and planners from the top down or the grass roots, the people living there? What are the mechanisms of control and whatfreedoms can loose-fit buildings provide? The legislative theme is also taken up in an article by Chris Miele who will look at the early building regulations in the UK, a by-product of the building acts that followed the great fire of London. These evolved into a pattern book of robust but highly adaptable buildings which are the foundation of the UK's great cities - and much copied elsewhere. He will also examine the effect of more recent rules that have had the opposite effect, while the guest-editor explores the possibility of new pattern books that might deal with modern lifestyles and allow for overlapping and dynamic activities. Topical essays will be punctuated by a number of exemplary international case studies of loose-fit architecture.

architecture [discipline] --- Architecture --- Design architectural --- Motion in architecture --- Architectural design --- Brand, Stewart. --- Design architectural. --- Buildings --- Sustainable buildings --- Architecture, Modern --- Architecture and society --- Architecture and technology --- Constructions --- Constructions durables --- Architecture et société --- Architecture et technologie --- Mouvement en architecture --- Remodeling for other use --- Designs and plans. --- Reconversion --- Dessins et plans --- Brand, Stewart