Don't Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture

by Aaron Betsky

In a time of climate crisis and housing shortages, a bold, visionary call to replace current wasteful construction practices with an architecture of reuse

As climate change has escalated into a crisis, the reuse of existing structures is the only way to even begin to preserve our wood, sand, silicon, and iron, let alone stop belching carbon monoxide into the air. Our housing crisis means that we need usable buildings now more than ever, but architect and critic Aaron Betsky shows that new construction—often seeking to maximize profits rather than resources, often soulless in its feel—is not the answer. Whenever possible, it is better to repair, recycle, renovate, and reuse—not only from an environmental perspective, but culturally and artistically as well.

Architectural reuse is as old as civilization itself. In the streets of Europe, you can find fragments from the Roman Empire. More recently, marginalized communities from New York to Detroit—queer people looking for places to gather or cruise, punks looking to make loud music, artists and displaced people looking for space to work and live—have taken over industrial spaces created then abandoned by capitalism, forging a unique style in the process. Their methods—from urban mining to dumpster diving—now inform architects transforming old structures today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Architecture

232 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 2024

About the author

Aaron Betsky is an American critic on art, architecture and design. He was the director of Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design until early 2022.
Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, he is the author of over a dozen books, including Architecture Matters, Making It Modern, Landscrapers: Building With the Land, Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, Queer Space, Revelatory Landscapes, and Architecture Must Burn. Internationally known as a lecturer, curator, reviewer and commentator, he writes the blog "Beyond Buildings" for Architect Magazine. Director of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, he has also been president and Dean of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (originally the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture), director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006) the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014), and was founding Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). As an unlicensed architect, he worked for Frank O. Gehry and Associates and Hodgetts + Fung. In 2003, he co-curated "Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Reviews

[An · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t quite what I expected. While it focuses primarily on the themes of preservation, restoration, and rebuilding old structures, I was hoping for a deeper exploration of repurposing buildings, particularly in terms of how it could be more culturally and environmentally sustainable. The book briefly touches on these aspects, but it doesn’t dive into the specifics of how repurposing old buildings can help address environmental concerns, like reducing the carbon footprint or considering the materials used in construction and their life cycle impact.

I was especially interested in learning more about how architectural planning and design could incorporate repurposing as a key factor in environmental sustainability. Specifically, I wanted a detailed look at how the materials used in both new and repurposed structures affect the immediate environment and contribute to the carbon life cycle. Unfortunately, the book didn’t really provide that level of depth or focus.

[Hannah Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and interesting read. Even as someone who is not an architect or in architecture, I found it mostly easy to follow (only a few terms I didn’t know) and understand:)


Thank you to Beacon Press and Gooodreads giveaways for my copy!

[Allison]

Based on its cover and title, I guessed this book would outline a problem and then would show how reuse of buildings and materials can address it. I guessed wrong.

This book presents descriptive criticism of imaginative reuse in a wide variety of forms and contexts from almost all over the world, ranging from reuse of buildings and materials to reuse of ideas and experiences that are at the intersection of art and architecture, including set design and virtual reality.