Culture of Repair | EN

This research follows up on the publication Umbaukultur: For an Architecture of Altering, edited by Christoph Grafe and Tim Rieniets (Dortmund: Kettler, 2020/2023), a third edition of which is forthcoming. Repair has long been a part of architectural culture through the work of craftsmen and builders, yet since the Industrial Revolution the discipline has been dominated by new construction and the treatment of sites as tabula rasa. This focus has generated vast waste, and against this unsustainable backdrop repair is taking an increasingly prominent place in practice, with approaches such as adaptive reuse emerging as responses to shifting values in the building industries. The theoretical implications of this shift have been overlooked, but the topic has recently attracted attention within the discourse on adaptive reuse. Although widespread attention to repair is recent, its roots lie in broader artistic and intellectual traditions, though the theoretical frameworks remain underdeveloped.

This research project seeks to identify historical practices and theoretical frameworks that nurture a culture of repair and to develop a new conceptual apparatus in which repair is redefined as integral to architectural thinking. Building on interdisciplinary insights, it positions repair not merely as a technical act but as a cultural practice capable of challenging destructive cycles of demolition and waste. The culture of repair stems from an urgent need to reuse existing resources, which entails a revaluation of forgotten traditions of craft and the tacit forms of knowledge embedded in these practices. The project aims to contribute to a new conceptualisation of knowledge generation necessary for the Bauwende, benefiting also from insights in conservation. It entails an examination of tacit knowledge manifested in tools like sketches and models, and as architectural projects increasingly involve specialists, reevaluating such knowledge becomes critical to fostering effective collaboration. The research grounds itself in the TACK project and expands its scope to consider global craft cultures, where tacit knowledge is a vital resource, while also using the body of knowledge on circularity developed in Wuppertal and Zurich. It argues that mediating objects and oral communication are essential for aligning the tacit knowledge of diverse specialists with the goals of durable and repairable architecture.

Although reuse is almost as old as building itself, it has been a minor part of architectural theory. The discourse of adaptive reuse has focused on professional practice and technical challenges. Conservation theory remains relevant but is limited by its focus on canonical monuments, requiring different approaches to balance pragmatic necessities with social considerations. This project aims to contribute to the theory of a culture of repair by establishing a repository of sources from architectural theory, other disciplines, and craft manuals. It proposes creating an anthology, modelled on influential collections from the 1960s onwards, which served to reconceptualise modernism. The project adopts this editorial framework but executes a conceptual shift to formulate a theory of repair, expanding the range of valid sources beyond canonical theory to include construction manuals, philosophical writings, and literary texts, with no chronological or regional limitations. The selection will include lesser-known authors, requiring a global network of contributors and a fundamental reconsideration of architectural theory. The methodological process involves assessing each source for its relevance to repair and understanding it within its original field. The outcome will be a collectively authored anthology that bridges the dichotomy between thinking and doing, offering guidance to educators and practitioners. The project also extends to architectural education, challenging traditional pedagogical models and foregrounding collective authorship and ethics of care. It will reuse and extend the infrastructure created by the TACK project, grounding the anthology within the Interdisciplinary Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies to validate its editorial methodologies.