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Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

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Lucid Transparency. The genesis of this ambitious adaptive reuse of Milan’s train tunnels, cocreated by Jenny Cook with fellow SCI-Arc student Hannah Park under the guidance of Elena Manferdini, was artificial intelligence. The students used Midjourney to generate personas and patterns that inspired a new identity for the space. Courtesy of Jenny H. Cook (MArch candidate, SCI-Arc)

August 2, 2024

How Can We Take Adaptive Reuse to the Next Level?

While mainstream architectural practices leverage existing building stock, these students imagine much more radical approaches.

By: Sam Lubell

As adaptive reuse solidifies its place as one of the world’s dominant forms of architectural intervention, designers are growing more creative with its execution, using it to create vibrant hubs of activity that integrate culture, community, sustainability, and a good deal of whimsy. 

Jack Tam’s (MArch candidate, UC Berkeley) Agri-topia tackles urban regeneration by transforming rooftop spaces into a network of co-farming gardens, connected by meandering paths and bridges and resting on top of both new housing and existing structures. Different farming approaches help create various levels and experiences, creating variable conditions filled with undulation and surprise. All surfaces slope down to a water retention lake, which redistributes water to the project. 

The notion of change and flexibility above and below the urban realm is exploited to an even more extreme extent by Jenny H. Cook (MArch candidate, SCI-Arc), who in LUCID Transparency proposes transforming Milan’s abandoned Magazzini Raccordati transit station, with its 28 tunnels, into eclectic coworking and design hubs connected via a steel tube–supported long-span walkway that reaches both above and below the existing train tracks. Contrasting materials, colors, and patterns, along with temporary walls and transparent structures, the project creates both flexibility and dynamism, spurring the imagination of designers. “The tunnel is no longer a dead building but is transformed into a living space,” Cook writes. 

MAGA Hotpot Structures inspired by bamboo forests form a canopy over eager hot pot enthusiasts in this project (opposite) by UCLA graduate student Pingting Li. Some contain solar panels for energy and some collect rainwater, while others whisk away heated air and purify oil fumes from the dining area. Courtesy of Pingting Li (MArch candidate, UCLA)

Literally digging into the life span of buildings, Daniel Lutze (MArch candidate, UPenn) proposes Resolve Eternal Structure, in which a “permanent” structure of south-facing marble blocks is woven with a north-facing stepped brick assembly. While the marble is meant to weather over time, the bricks provide a simple surface to promote plant life growth and further building. In creating a “skeleton for any kind of temporary condition to be constructed above, beside, and between,” writes Lutze, “we create a shrine to ecology within the city. 

Perhaps the most radical proposition of all is MAGA Hotpot, by Pingting Li (MArch candidate, UCLA), which seeks to repurpose an abandoned U.S. consulate building in Chengdu, China, by drawing on both food and architecture. For Li, the project presents a chance for China to assert itself culturally. “China is special and strong enough to become a new authority. But unfortunately, most of the public are still eager to match American guidelines.” So while the base of the building, with its thick columns and classical massing, represents American authority, over it Li has placed an eclectic series of structures, including a forestlike roof incorporating conelike structures (which act as rainwater collectors, oil fume purifiers, and hot air conveyors while also incorporating local bamboo weaving) and an eating area incorporating symbols, and even overscale representations, of double-flavor hot pot, bringing together the flavors of China and America harmoniously. The result is a culinary and recreational space that not only revitalizes the building but also pays homage to its cultural context.

Resolve Eternal Structure “How do we express permanence through materiality and form?” asks UPenn grad student Daniel Lutze in this collaborative project (left) with Roxanne Zhou. Exposure to the sun will weather the marble, for instance, but might encourage moss and other plants to grow on the brick. Courtesy of Daniel Lutze (MArch candidate, UPenn)
AGRI-TOPIA Jack Tam’s project is designed for a coastal neighborhood near a farmers market in Oakland, California, where agricultural wholesale businesses have the area bustling at night but empty in the daytime. Tam wants to convert some existing buildings to housing with rooftop farms. Courtesy of Jack Tam (MArch candidate, UC Berkeley)

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