Title

Author(s)

Estefanía Martín

Affiliation

Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/SNZG2252

Keywords

restoration, adaptive reuse, historical integrity

PP

623-632

How to Cite

Martín, Estefanía. “Cinderella’s Slipper New Uses and Junkspace for Old Buildings.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 623–632. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

The present article seeks to reaffirm that the reuse of heritage buildings is one of the inalienable principles of architectural restoration; that is, since the very origins of the discipline, its ultimate goal has been to endow the historical framework with a new use (Marconi, 1993). Restoration must bring life back, not mummify existence. Therefore, the strategies and techniques applied must follow the criteria set out in the international restoration charters in proposing an appropriate and compatible use for the preconceived space (Torres Balbás, 1933). Although political and social interests often cause historic buildings to bend to pragmatic needs that blur the fine line between use and abuse (Rivera, 2008), reuse remains both a responsibility and a task inherent to restoration. The reflective and critical process should lead us toward a balanced choice between historical and modern value (Riegl, 1903), between documentary and instrumental value, as well as between the weight (and dimension) of the intervention and that of the pre-existence (Baldini, 2002).
By the mid-twentieth century, new forms of reuse began to emerge that maintained continuity with history—that is, unselfconscious interventions that recoded and provoked the mutation of historic buildings. In contrast to the nineteenth-century historicist language, modern architecture possessed its own expressive vocabulary, allowing it to expand, dissect, and even excise the preexistence (Rovira, 1996) as if it were a living organism. In this sense, Carlo Scarpa’s (1906–1978) interventions at Castelvecchio reveal modern tectonics interwoven with the historical work, representing yet another stratum of the palimpsest. This positivist vision of history, expressed by modern architecture in relation to the ancient building, had already appeared earlier in what Venturi (1966) described as “violent adjacencies” and “superadjacencies.” However, the later and more discernible works of Franco Minissi revealed a different approach and challenged the paradigm of assimilation.
Today, the debate surrounding the necessary historical boundary and the use of preexisting structures remains alive, continuing to generate confusion among practitioners of critical-conservative restoration (Brandi, 1988; Carbonara, 2017), avant-garde architects of reuse (and adaptive metamorphosis), and the pure-conservationists of adequacy (utilitarian artifacts). Three positions that inevitably resemanticize the building—and at times provoke bewilderment among both users and scholars.

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.