Reform follows function? Reflections on the reuse of modern buildings

Abstract

Today, we face the risk of considering that everything could be patrimony. In a world where the most constant feature is the permanent acceleration in the velocity of change, we tend to increasingly value our built heritage, as a reconciliatory mark of identity. On the other hand, our obligation to preserve the legacy we have inherited from the past must not inhibit the responsibility of building patrimony for the future: we also have to assure that the future generations will inherit the memories of the present time. So, architects, urban planners and policy-makers must decide what is more important to protect, and how to protect it, considering different factors related to the social, cultural and economic importance of the building or site in question: age, meaning, rarity, authorship, quality, integrity, etc. Time is a central aspect in patrimonial value, but age can be a biased factor, in the choice of what to preserve and how to preserve it. If we only focus on the age of the buildings, we will disregard recent architecture that represents an important legacy to the future. The maintenance of the original program is also an important factor to consider in the rehabilitation of buildings; however, when facing the need to reuse, it is vital that the new program may be suitable to the pre-existing building. In an intervention on the twentieth century patrimony, this question presents a delicate issue: if the original project was conceived under the notion that ‘form follows function’, how can it now be adapted to a new function without undermining its very reason for existence? This paper intends to address the question of reuse by presenting and analysing some examples of recent interventions on twentieth century built heritage that addressed this question in different ways: the Municipal Market Hall in Guimarães (José Marques da Silva, 1926-50), the ‘Cité Frugés’ in Pessac (Le Corbusier, 1924-27) and the Tea House at Leça da Palmeira (Álvaro Siza Vieira, 1956-63).