Standards of transformation

Conversion is a long-established construction task. But when you convert a building, you don’t just change the physical structure. Conversion also has a social dimension and raises questions about the reasoning, and who the winners and losers of the transformation are. ARCH+ has dedicated a double issue to the subject of conversion. Stan Hema developed the editorial design and visually integrated the guiding principle.

In ARCH+ No. 256, organisations like 51N4E and Lacaton Vassal present conversion projects that are both aesthetically sophisticated and socially and architecturally sustainable. Ishimura+Neichi explore gradual conversion as a catalyst for material flow and architectural prototyping, while H2o Architectes demonstrate how a parking garage can be transformed into a remarkable office building.

Our editorial design supports the thesis of the magazine, that the future of design does not depend on developments yet to be invented and ‘for which we will one day have to discard our current habits. Change is in the building stock; it can already be implemented in the here and now with contemporary materials.’ It is that ambiguity that makes conversion a feasible path for transformation beyond the formal rhetoric of patina.