Architecture of the Leftover
How can the obsolescence that produced leftover architecture be co-opted to allow a new architecture to emerge, scavenging its embodied energy and embracing the scars of the leftover rather than simply trying to fix the mistake.
Layers of Leftover Architecture and truncated infrastructure have been left behind by the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism.
With vast amounts of embodied energy these objects symbolize an untapped potential for new architectural forms that can build on the obsolescence that caused their downfall.
By looking at how these projects were deemed progressive at a point in time and how - in hindsight - they proved to be ill-advised, we can understand how the obsolescence that produced the leftover can be co-opted to allow a new architecture to emerge, by scavenging its embodied energy and embracing the scars of the leftover rather than the desire to simply fix the mistake.
But what happens when the leftover is out of sight? When the scars are hidden this undertaking becomes more complex. Brooks hall is an example of one of these objects. It’s an underground convention center built in the 1960s underneath San Francisco’s Beaux Arts Civic Center Plaza.
Today it’s become a glorified storage facility.
Why has Brooks hall been immune to redevelopment and what formal and programmatic techniques can be employed to reignite this space?
The formal strategy presents a missing link that connects incompatible systems, the obsolete and the new. New mechanical connectors bring these together.
A phasing over time eschews the tabula rasa or superstructure approach; previously incompatible deviant programs and new tectonic connectors combine.
A performance nestled between offices and storage
A wedding officiated in the underground courtyards
This exercise rethinks the Fordist idea of “one big building that does one thing” by co-opting the obsolescence of the leftover with a sympathetic connective tissue.
A new and incremental architecture starts to emerge, the Architecture of the Leftover.