Appropriation and Modification
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[WHAT] Starting Point In this fast growing society, we have been demolishing and building too much to an extent that we start to forget what we were. Meanwhile, there are old buildings which have been trying so hard to be restored to how they look as it is before.
CCTV in Beijing was built by removing lots of Hutongs while Central Police Station is restored by painting into a brand new white facade.
Today, we have to re-think what we are actually preserving in an architecture. May not be the physical body. But the identity. May be shown in building techniques, the way people associated with it, or how it was designed. “A preservation project is an homage to earlier cultures and mentalities to which you can add a new dimension, a new function, a new beauty or appeal. Almost every impulse signals that globalization needs rethinking or adjustment,” said Rem Koolhaas at 2016 AIA convention. Preservation is not about restoring old buildings in a way that looks exactly as it is before. It is a notion that requires a larger imagination, clarity and ambition to define what it is that’s being preserved, rather than freezing architecture in an ever-changing social-technological environment. Architecture VS Identity There has been a discussion on whether architecture or the identity of mankind come first. or the identity is represented / interpreted by architecture. Churches and temples are created to show sacredness; political architecture is created to show power. Why could not it be the other way?
Ningbo Museum is built by collecting and randomizing local materials by workers. Glass brick at Chanel shop front is invented to preserve the traditional use of bricks.
“The impossibility of keeping tradition alive is a universal and irreversible phenomenon.” mentioned in Natural History by Herzog & De Meuron. But identity / tradition can be recorded, translated and reinterpreted by architecture. Thesis This thesis aims to question the current preservation and construction work in order to highlight the perpetual tension between the conservative and progressive thinking. Architecture can be a tool to reinterpret tradition and keep traditions alive. We do not have to worry about demolition anymore as architecture can juxtapose the past and the present.
[WHY] The thesis is timely to the city as our tradition / culture / identities are disappearing along with demolition. [HOW] The thesis starts by thinking from different angles – a site to be demolished, a disappearing culture / identity – in searching for a merging point.
Central market in HK is a Grade III historic building. It is now abandoned and waiting for future development. It is now made into a passage by puncturing through 2 roads. #old market #mobility
Dyeing Industry in Taiwan
[Precedents] Researching precedent renovating projects, successful and not successful ones, in order to understand what is preserved and what is reinterpreted, and how identities are translated into architectural moves.
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