Session 4H: Renovation > Rejuvenation

29 October 2019
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

High-rise buildings joined the journey of Modernism in the middle of the 20th century, becoming a major defining element of the modern city. Europe now faces the quandary experienced elsewhere: how to maintain the vitality of mid-century tall buildings that were controversial at the time of construction and are now showing signs of advancing age? This takes place against a backdrop of a long history of sustaining historic structures. The story tracks across renovations of Germany’s first skyscrapers, the vertical rebirth of Warsaw’s cityscape, and strategies for drastically cutting back on construction material use, while transforming putative demolition waste into precious raw materials for new buildings.