Following the devastating earthquakes last September, which affected more than 150,000 homes and buildings across various states and cities in Mexico, rescue and reconstruction have become fundamental tasks. Recycling and rebuilding imply a profound social repair and a valuation of what already exists, avoiding indiscriminate demolitions, the consequences of which are irreparable in economic, ecological, and heritage terms.
Architecture is not written on a blank page. And even less so on a blank site: history, topography, orientation, and regulations inform the process. However, building upon what is already built requires a deeper dialogue with memory to design through subtraction, harnessing the energy of the place to trigger resonances or to regenerate containers that have already reached the end of their lifecycle. Designing with almost nothing is to create architecture beyond the building itself, with respect and audacity. It requires subtle and intelligent acts to edit the pre-existing, selecting signs of identity, context, the compositional forces that shaped it, and its heritage value. Rebuilding through subtraction demands an economic, ecological, and even aesthetic attitude that activates grafts and prunings.
Creating architecture there, within the built environment, may seem like almost nothing. In this 82nd issue of Arquine, we present projects and reflections on architectures that transform spaces through actions as precise as they are limited: new lines that dialogue with the aged walls at the Tiro al Blanco gallery in Guadalajara; a fresh look at the century-old vecindad of Proyecto Público Prim in Mexico City, uncovering new information from its walls; a structure superimposed on an abandoned department store, transformed into a new sociocultural center in São Paulo; or the respectful silence surrounding the rescue of a Berlin bunker to convert it into the Feuerle Collection, among other examples. Furthermore, we publish reflections from the—nearly anonymous—authors who excavated the subsoil of the Palace of Versailles, dissected a neighborhood theater in Barcelona, reinterpreted former haciendas in Yucatán, or dismantled Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin—like a Japanese temple—to restore it to its original state.
