Architecture Reborn

Architecture Transformed is a detailed investigation into the adaptation and conversion of existing buildings as a distinctive type of architectural design. Examples of this work abound. Renzo Piano has transformed the legendary Fiat factory into a cultural and commercial complex; a former public school in Long Island City, NY has become P.S.1 Institute for Contemporary Art; and a 1930s factory in Detroit is now the HOPE Center for Advanced Technologies. In color photographs and plans, here are forty-four international schemes that demonstrate that reuse is a positive--even imperative--way to achieve a forward-looking architecture. Four extensive chapters group projects into spaces for living and working, leisure and learning, museums, and unfinished projects such as the British Museum redevelopment by Foster and Partners, and the reconstruction of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. For architects, students, and all proponents of creative reuse of structures, this is an essential pictorial reference and an important collection of case histories.

Kenneth Powell is an architecture critic and journalist based in London. He has written monographs on the work of Norman Foster, Edward Cullinan, and Richard Rogers, among many other books. He has been actively involved in architectural conservation as secretary of SAVE Britain's Heritage from 1984 to 1987, and currently as Consultant Director of the Twentieth Century Society.