This year, Unit 4 considered the architecture of repair. In the midst of the climate crisis, we cannot afford to build anew without intense consideration for the viability of the urban realm that already exists. We must be knowledgeable about the cost of extracting and processing the materials that we specify. We must find economic ways to utilise them. We must protect and expand the increasingly fragile ecosystems that support us.
“80% of the buildings projected to exist in 2050, the year of the UN’s net zero carbon emissions target, have already been built.” Extract from “‘Demolition is an act of violence’...”
The Guardian, 16.08.22
Repair requires a consideration and understanding for what is there already; for the intent of the maker before us, the context that they operated within, and the context that surrounds us now. Unit 4 worked within the city of Coventry, a complex and historic place that re-built itself in the aftermath of devastating bombing during the second world war.
Identifying seemingly unloved post-war buildings, the unit proposed ways of adapting and utilising these structures to give them a new lease of life. These proposals demonstrate that with that with care and imagination an architecture of repair can provide us with beautiful, sustainable, multi-layered and many-textured cities.