Normally, we valuate buildings as singular and confined entities, naming their architects, concepts, forms and functions, and securely fixing them in time and place. Consequently, their components (construction, materials, colors, products, technical systems i.a.) gain value only by being parts of the whole, in place to support our conception of the work. Similarly, in historic preservation, valuable buildings are turned into monuments as wholes, leaving the components as servants to a grander idea.  

This seminar explores alternative ways of valuating buildings by taking their components as points of departure: where they are from, how they have been circulated, who their producers and distributers were, how they age and accumulate value over time, and how they can be recycled in new forms of architecture.  

The task is to investigate a number of existing buildings, using the conceptual framework of provenance to explore their reuse, transformation and preservation. The concept of provenance is normally used to document the chronological history of ownership, legitimacy, and display of artworks, manuscripts, and antiquities, but is also regularly employed in relationship to production of food, clothing, jewelry and building materials (fair trade, food miles, child-labor, etc.) To transpose this concept into architecture releases unexpected aspects of architecture traditionally not accounted for, like the histories of fluctuating ownership, dramatic events, political controversy, and social history. Triggering this potential might alter the way we reuse, transform and preserve our buildings.  

The seminar is part of the research project “Provenance Projected. Architecture Past and Future in the Era of Circularity”, run by Mari Lending and Erik Langdalen