SESSION 2

The current regression crisis calls for a fundamental rethinking of construction, beginning with scale and modes of intervention, whether on new buildings or existing ones. The lessons of traditional architecture—governed by necessity, by the balance between permanence and reversibility, and by the use of local resources—urge a renewed sensitivity to the measure of any intervention. Remind, Reuse, Renounce, Recover, Reduce, represent five key actions through which to proactively respond to the crisis, proposing transformation strategies rooted in the real needs of places, in the tension between long and short timescales, and in circular resource flows and site-specific processes. 

In relation to these five key actions, the session invites contributions that deal more specifically with: 

• Remind focuses on the ability of heritage to convey design principles that remain valid for contemporary transformation, beginning with the processes and techniques through which it was built; 

• Reuse emphasizes material flows and the potential of construction sites to activate short, local cycles of reuse and recycling, turning the building process and construction sites into models of sustainability based on local resources; 

• Renounce is linked to the need to focus on existing architecture, limiting the use of resources in the search for a new concept of sustainability that takes shape through a logic of low technology and high thinking. This session centres on place and available resources, advocating for an architecture that works with what exists by constantly seeking balance with the built and natural environment; 

• Recover is to respond meaningfully to contemporary needs in existing buildings, balancing conservation and innovation in use, adapting them to new requirements through changes in geometry, materials, or techniques. Recovery may involve simple maintenance, targeted additions, or even partial demolition to accommodate new functions; 

• Reduce understood as the avoidance of waste, is the categorical imperative that synthesizes the previous actions, rooted in the logic of traditional architecture, where responses are tailored to the essential. Self-building, long a staple of rural economies, still represents a viable mode of transitional occupation and site reactivation under constrained conditions.