Title

Author(s)

Camila Aybara

Juan Jose Mateos

Affiliation

aybar.mateos.arquitectos

IE University

Universidad Europea, Madrid

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/GJOV4924

Keywords

Obsolescence, Ceramic, Horizon Line

PP

86-92

How to Cite

Aybar, Camila, Juan Jose Mateos. “An Act in Eight Variations Instructions for Managing Obsolescence, 2006–2026.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 86-92. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

Over the last two decades, our professional and academic work has engaged with diverse architectural heritages across multiple temporal, material, and urban conditions. We outline eight variations operating as conceptual frameworks for confronting obsolescence. They are informed by local contexts, environmental urgencies, and collective memory, and offer strategies of intervention grounded in the reuse, adaptation, and reinterpretation of existing structures. (V01) A Ceramic Landscape, a former 1970s hospital, previously associated with dystopian imagery, is reprogrammed as a climatic shelter. Constructed with recycled, locally sourced ceramics, the intervention preserves its social memory while activating new environmental functions in Ciudad Real. (V02) New Layers and Subtraction, an unfinished corporate structure from the 2008 financial crisis is transformed into housing through spatial subtraction and the insertion of porous thresholds, drawing from Matta-Clark’s logic of critical incision, in Seville. (V03) Connected Landscapes, a fragmented 14th-century religious complex is reactivated as a civic square and archive for the Ministry of Culture in Galicia, restoring both accessibility and historical traces. (V04) Diffuse Scale, a discontinuous new façade, alluding to Antony Gormley’s spatial strategies, reconstructs the legibility of a distorted structure through perceptual ambiguity and scale in Madrid. (V05) Growing Without Visibility, a 19th-century brick building on Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana is adapted into a judicial facility, integrating geothermal systems and active slabs while maintaining its original presence. (V06) A Field in the Palace, a disused cinema is absorbed into the municipal fabric as a luminous civic interior, extending the adjacent public plaza within its historic volume, in Torrelavega. (V07) buit per ple In Barcelona, a 1970s corporate building is domesticated through precise material reduction and local ceramic strategies, allowing new social uses. (V08) Instructions for Transition, between the metropolitan scale of Castellana and the domestic grain of El Viso, a spatial and chromatic transition is articulated through glazed, recycled ceramics.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.