Upcycling: a bricolage of memory and new meanings - Three facades
Paper presented in ‘Using What We Have: Histories of Fragments, Ruins, Rationed Resources, and Obsolete Spaces’
SAHGB’s Annual Architectural History Symposium for PhD Scholars and Early Career Researchers, University of Liverpool, 2022
Facades of Alte Pinakothek in Munich, St. Demetrius Loumbardiaris in Athens, Museum of Gibellina in Sicily
© Thomais Kordonouri
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, entire buildings are being recycled and cities around the world have adopted policies that encourage the reuse of existing building materials. Upcycling is introduced as an intervention that converts waste materials into something more useful and valuable (Yi S., Hisun L. et al., 2019). Moreover, this process saves raw materials by reducing energy costs and emissions. In developed societies, upcycling is considered as a criterion of environmental ethics and focus of planning, while in developing countries it has always been a means of survival. It is an environmentally friendly practice that can be applied anywhere, but the result can be unique, since the resources differ.
Looking back at the history of architecture, upcycling appeared in the reuse of fragments of classical temples, the so-called “spolia”, for the purpose of reconstruction of later Byzantine ones (Saradi, 1997). Later examples of buildings that stand as mnemonic devices of the past have also been produced through reused debris of destroyed structures or ruins. In this way, architects or artists that upcycle materials, fragments or waste objects do not only transform them so that they serve new functions, but also give them sentimental value by preserving their memory. In addition to that, they connect them with contemporary materials and produce meaning in the intervened space. This assignment of symbolic meanings in a classified totality of objects is associated with the concept of ‘bricolage’ (Barthes, 1994), a collage of heterogeneous old and new layers that can create a conflict or a dialogue with each other in a new context.
The final output of upcycling can either pay tribute to the history of buildings or materials as a ‘memorial’, reveal the resources “innovatively” in the new created spaces, or follow the principle of ‘mimesis’ of the upcycled forms, typologies and materials. These methods are applied in specific case studies such as the wall of Museo di Gibellina (1988) by Francesco Venezia. This involved a remnant of Palazzo di Lorenzo, which was damaged in a historical earthquake, as a memorial. Another example is the main façade of Alte Pinakothek (1957) by Hans Döllgast in Munich, where reused bricks of Trümmerfrauen (“rubble women”) compose the post-war constructed part imitating the rhythm of the initial building. Moreover, the façades of St. Dimitrios Loumbardiaris (1951) by Dimitris Pikionis in Athens are also worth analysing, since they were formed from reused classical debris, which were combined innovatively through the use of concrete creating a language of critical regionalism. Studying these three examples of façades that follow the aforementioned principles materially, typologically and, conceptually, this article, which is based in ongoing research on the origin of fragments and the results of bricolages, contributes to the discussion on adaptive reuse and post-conflict reconstructions. In the end, it will present upcycling not as a goal in itself, but as a bricolage - a creative method that has semiotic aspects.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barthes, R. The Semiotic Challenge, University of California Press, 1994
Saradi, H. “The Use of Ancient Spolia in Byzantine Monuments: The Archaeological and Literary Evidence.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition, vol. 3, no. 4, Springer, 1997, pp. 395–423, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30222298
Yi S., Hisun L., Jeongmin L. and Woong K. (2019). “Upcycling strategies for waste electronic and electrical equipment based on material flow analysis”, Environmental Engineering Research 2019, vol. 24(1): 74-81. Available: https://doi.org/10.4491/eer.2018.092