Rebuilding Before Building

As an extension of her immersive involvement with the Rebuilding Pavilion at the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress of Architects, Copenhagen (see report in Happenings section), Bhawna Jaimini spoke to three architects from different parts of the world to present practical examples in an attempt to map a discourse on adaptive reuse to advocate rebuilding efforts in the face of a planet in crisis.

It is 24 degrees Celsius on an autumn day in London, where I am writing this, an unprecedented record for the United Kingdom where heatwave conditions have become exceedingly common in the last few years. Though this temperature might not seem ‘hot’ enough to warrant a heatwave warning if you come from a tropical region like I do, it is definitely a cause for concern in historically cold countries like the United Kingdom where buildings are designed to trap heat.

“Temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees [Celsius] are normal and are sometimes considered even pleasant, but it’s the architecture here that makes it more unbearable because it is just not suited for rising temperatures,” Sheeba Shetty, an architect from India who now works for Transport for London, shared her experience of the heatwave that has swept England in early September. For now, people are buying electric fans—where sales went up to 1,630 per cent¹ in July 2022—to cope up with the unexpected heatwaves.

RELATED: Empower Hubs

Empower Hubs by Journeyman International

REVIVING RURAL ECONOMIES Joanna Nsenga is a young architect who studied on the west coast in the United States before returning back to her home country, Rwanda, to put her architectural skills to use to improve the lives of local communities. Empower Hubs—now called Kinvest Commons—was one of the first projects she worked on after joining Journeyman International, a humanitarian architecture nonprofit, which started in the United States but has a firm presence in Rwanda. “More than 90 per cent of the population of Rwanda is rural who are in need of economic opportunities within and around their villages,” Nsenga […]

There is a palpable anxiety that can be felt about the uncertain times, which will succeed these heatwaves in the future. The increasing number of disasters compounded by the climate crisis in the rest of the world has made it clear that time is not on our side. From wildfires in Canada and Hawaii to floods in Libya, Greece and Hong Kong, almost no country was left untouched by the wrath of the climate crisis. And as if the climate crisis was not enough to upend the daily rhythms of our lives, there is war and conflict peeling away layer after layer of normalcy in countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine, among others.

RELATED: Studio 877

Studio 877 by localground

RE-ADAPTING PRIVATE PROPERTIES FOR PUBLIC USE Studio 877 is situated in the old cantonment quarters of the city of Pune in western India. It is home to an architectural practice—Local Ground—and the Loft, a cultural space, both started by architect Khushru Irani. The 100-year-old building, which was in a dilapidated state, was given a new lease of life through painstaking restoration work. “The two-storey building was bought by my grandfather and served as residence for our large family for many years. We also had tenants there, but the roof of the first floor was in a crumbling state and it […]

RELATED: Transformation of a former factory into affordable quality housing

Transformation of a former factory into affordable quality housing by Arcgency

REUSING OLD INFRASTRUCTURE FOR PRESENT CHALLENGES Ryslinge is a small town with a population of less than 2,000 people in Central Denmark. It is governed by the Faaborg Midtfyn municipality, which hired Copenhagen-based architecture firm Arcgency to convert an old factory into affordable housing. Camilla Lemb Nielsen, an architect who works with Arcgency, joined in from her office in Copenhagen to speak about the project named Faber Fabrikker. “Rural Denmark has a very rich architectural heritage in the form of old factories and stations, which are no longer in use. Rethinking modern usage for these buildings has a two-fold advantage. […]

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Bhawna Jaimini is a writer and urban practitioner based in Mumbai, India. Trained as an architect, she currently works with Community Design Agency on projects that seek to improve the built habitats of some of the most marginalised communities in India’s urban areas, using participatory tools. She is deeply passionate about gender rights and using architecture and design to address issues of social inequality and inequity in these areas.

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1 https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/16/electric-fans-how-much-do-they-cost-to-run-heatwave-best-models