November 2010, 1365. VOLUME CCXXVIII

Read November's Architectural Review as a digital edition

The art of ageing gracefully: even the most idealistic visions are tempered by time

One of the themes running through this issue is of that of how to extend existing buildings. To take just two examples: Manuelle Gautrand’s extension to the Lille Métropole Museum of Modern Art which nuzzles up to Roland Simounet’s early 1980s original, and deSingel International Arts Campus by Stéphane Beel (page 58), the latest phase in a development begun in 1968. Both present quite different challenges: Lille is more a contrasting set piece, while deSingel is an accumulation of shifts and moves.

Adding to any historic continuum requires both confidence and deference. Architects usually have an abundance of the former, but the latter is often harder to discern. Not having carte blanche to do as you please, but to still be able to make a statement is a tricky balancing act. Often the results can be anodyne pastiche or the schlock of the new. The idea that buildings change and adapt over the years has always been starkly at odds with the catwalk moment of launch recorded by magazines such as the AR. Building revisits might address this, but architects, who increasingly see media coverage as an extension of slick PR campaigns, are not always keen to discuss how their work has fared.

Surely, however, this is a crucial and enriching strand of architectural debate, rather than the simplistic bish bash of style wars. Buildings aren’t one-season wonders and how they work, wear and weather has important lessons for everyone. Our survey of Brasilia on its 50th anniversary shows how even the most idealistic of architectural visions has been tempered by time.