As part of the SA+P Spring 2023 Lecture Series, the School of Architecture + Planning hosts the Baltimore + Rotterdam Designing Cities Webinar Series. 

Collective Reuse: The Art of Reuse Through Community Participation (Webinar B)

Adaptive Reuse is the use of buildings and materials for purposes other than originally intended. Although adaptive reuse has a long tradition in arts and crafts, more recently environmental awareness and design for sustainability have revitalized the role of a trash to treasures approach, providing a wide array of contemporary urban design which is an important part of today's city sustainability. In this session, we could explore the roles of adaptive reuse in the urban environment, focusing on repurposed objects (also) found in urban public spaces in order to (re)define the city. 

Playing with scale, we could explore concepts of cultural identity and sustainability and their relationship tocrafts and design. We could investigate adaptive reuse at the urban and human scale, focusing on buildings’ adaptability and urban structures, as well as flexible and accessible public spaces in the city. We could explaining the process of urban transformation within the notion of craftsmanship and whether craftsmanship becomes not only a means of expressing individuality, but also a communal experience. In a city like Baltimore with an abundance of abandoned sites and buildings, what does it mean to
reconnect and regenerate the city?

By adopting a smarter and more sustainable reclamation of parts of the city that are belittled under the tag of “abandoned sites” or “deserted buildings,” are we, the designers, ready to adopt an inclusive strategy based on people participation and craftsmanship (craftmanship seen not because it is native or traditional, but because they are functional).

Moderated by: Sinisha Brdar

Panelists:

Evan Wivell (Founder +  Architect, EastWing)
Jan Knikker (Partner | Director Strategy & Development, MVRDV)
Megan Elcrat (Founding Partner, PresentCompany)
Duzan Doepel (Founding Partner, DoepelStrijkers)

*Lectures are providing AIA continuing education credits: 1.0 AIA LU|HSW per webinar.*