The Potential of Form reframes adaptive reuse not as a pragmatic response to existing conditions but as a design proposition in its own right — one that locates untapped architectural energy within the built fabric of European cities.
About This Book
What does it mean to adapt a building without simply neutralising what made it architecturally significant? Elena Guidetti approaches adaptive reuse through a post-functional lens, arguing that existing buildings carry latent energy — embedded in their form, their material logic, and their accumulated history — that good design intervention can release rather than suppress. Through close analysis of European examples, the book examines how architectural form shifts across time and what that movement means for heritage preservation and sustainability. Drawings ground the argument in the specifics of form-function interaction, making this an essential reference for architects and researchers working at the intersection of heritage, adaptive reuse, and architectural theory.
Key Features
- 144 pages of analytical drawings and in-depth case studies of European adaptive reuse projects
- Afterword by Matteo Robiglio, Full Professor in Architectural and Urban Design at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino
- Published by JOVIS, 2024
What You'll Discover
- A post-functional framework for understanding adaptive reuse — one that moves beyond programme-led justifications to ask what a building's form itself makes possible
- How the concept of transformative potential challenges conventional categories of heritage conservation and architectural intervention
- The role of drawings in articulating the relationship between architectural form, function, and environmental effect across time
- How balancing design intervention, temporal consistency, and latent formal energy constitutes a distinct design methodology for working with existing buildings
About the Author
Elena Guidetti is the author of this theoretical investigation into adaptive reuse and architectural form. Further biographical details are not provided in the source material.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 144
- Dimensions: 17 x 24 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783986121709
- Publisher: JOVIS
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and researchers working with heritage and existing buildings, students of architectural theory, and practitioners seeking a conceptual framework for adaptive reuse beyond sustainability metrics.