Architecture in Existing Fabric : Planning, Design, Building

Architectural work on existing structures has become enormously important in recent years. For the majority of architects, this is where future market opportunities will lie. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the field and is thus addressed to all practitioners, students, and building sponsors whose interest goes beyond an initial encounter with this wideranging field of activity. Contradicting the conventional view that creative design work is the exclusive province of new building design, the authors offer a nuanced account of active and creative strategies for planning, design, and execution. Subjects considered range from town planning issues through the overall project cycle and its individual phases all the way to building management. Special focuses are the "grammar of design" as well as the issues arising through collaboration of different experts. In order to illuminate this broad and complex spectrum of topics, the book incorporates thirty examples of projects from Europe and North America, in which buildings from a huge variety of periods – from the Middle Ages to the 1960s – are transferred into the present.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Cramer has worked as an architect in the field of historical preservation for almost thirty years, and he has supervised many important building sites, including the Museumsinsel Berlin (Berlin’s Museum Island) and the Forum Romanum in Rome. He received his doctorate at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (Darmstadt University of Technology) and his qualification as a university teacher at the Technische Universität Hannover (Hanover Technical University). Since 1997 he has been a professor of the history of building and city planning at the Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin Technical University). He is active at the Schinkel-Zentrum (Schinkel Center) of the Technische Universität Berlin and works together with the TU Berlin’s graduate/master’s program in historical preservation, which was established in 1998. He is the author of the Handbuch der Bauaufnahme (Handbook of Architectural Photography) and other works.

Stefan Breitling is an independent architect in Berlin and an assistant professor at the Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin Technical University). His areas of special interest include living in the city, construction in historical context, and redevelopment technologies. He led the advanced training program "Architekten und Innenarchitekten in der Denkmalpflege" ("Architects and Interior Designers in the Field of Historical Preservation") for the Architektenkammer Berlin (Berlin Chamber of Architects).