Hintergrund 43

Description

The positions and examples of work by Caroline Jäger-Klein (TU Wien), Hans Gangoly (Gangoly Kristiner Architects), András Pálffy (Jabornegg & Pálffy Architects) and Christoph Stadlhuber (BIG), which we recommend for your perusal in this issue of Hintergrund, illustrate the different ways in which this transformation can nevertheless take place within a similar frame of reference. When historical structures no longer correspond to current needs, one of the fundamental problems – before a structural transformation can even be thought of – is finding a function. Without an adequate utilization concept, even the most valuable building substance (if it is not to be declared an untouchable monument) is lost. The buildings presented by Gangoly Kristiner Architects and Jabornegg & Pálffy Architects prove that undreamt-of purposes can lie dormant in historical structures, for the awakening of which careful reading of the inventory is an important basis. The type and extent of the intervention is then always derived from the conditions of the individual case:
Preserve and change – the dialectic of these two endeavors, inherent in conversion, leaves different traces in each design.