Broken Angel

15 Jan ’07 – 10:38 pm


(Photo Douglas LeMoine)

Broken Angel, the Brooklyn house made famous by Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, may have been saved by an adaptive reuse deal according to the New York Times.


(Photo Douglas LeMoine)

The spectacular example of outsider architecture has been suffering a near death experience following a fire in early October 2006. According to the owner’s son, Christopher Wood,

The building Broken Angel is a unique melding of art and architecture designed by my father Arthur Wood, and located in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. The original building was bought at a city auction in 1979, and major construction was completed in 2002. On 10/10/06 a structure at the top of Broken Angel caught fire. Thanks to the quick action of the New York City fire department no one was harmed, and only minimal damage was done to the building. Unfortunately the fire brought the attention of the department of buildings (DOB) who vacated my parents, the owners and guardians of Broken Angel. My family is currently working with the architecture firm, Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture www.jpda.net/news.html, to bring the building to code, however we are still being threatened with demolition by the DOB.

It is unclear how much of the Wood’s constructions will survive. They have agreed to submit engineering plans to dismantle the building’s 40-foot rooftop structure, the main violation of building codes. The Woods have also entered into a tentative agreement to share ownership with a local developer, Shahn Andersen, who would turn most of the building into condominiums including some form of community space, along with living and studio space for the Woods. Mr Wood says he was forced into the deal because he was running out of time and afraid the buildings department would tear down his home.


(Photo Douglas LeMoine)

Although it’s debatable whether Mr Wood is an outsider artist in the usual sense of the word there is no doubt that his building is intended to be a complete environment and any demolition will depreciate its eccentric charm. (There is an excellent article by Samantha Krukowski about the complete environments created by outsider artists and their difficult relationship with art markets) Despite a few prominent examples like Watts Towers, outsider architecture usually ends up being demolished, unlike the bleaker monstrosities produced by developers.

There are numerous interior and exterior photos of Broken Angel at Christopher Wood’s flckr site .

By Ian Milliss | Posted in architecture, art, building | Comments (2)

Where’s walley?

14 Jan ’07 – 8:14 pm

The old milk carton wallet has worn out from recent over-use. How about a new one, this time made of adaptively reused plastic bags?

Maybe just a rubber band?

Or perhaps made of duct tape?


You can even make one lined with aluminum foil to go with your tin foil helmet?

Sorry, shouldn’t joke, RFID devices are a problem – but while you’re at it you could also make a Marvin the Martian costume out of duct tape.

That’s what we like about DIY adaptive reuse, you have a choice between different things rather than the average consumer’s stressful tyranny of choice between the same things.

By Ian Milliss | Posted in accessories, clothing | Comments (0)

Refugee chic

14 Jan ’07 – 6:12 pm

Just as it has become fashionable for designers to give a nod to adaptive reuse, it is also fashionable for architects to create show houses for refugees. You get a few extra brownie points if it involves a bit of adaptive reuse.

Here’s an example by Cubo Arquitectos of Santiago, Chile.

Its made entirely of doors, pallettes and some plastic sheeting. It looks great, as a shack we love it, it’s got honesty and style.

But as emergency housing? You must be joking? The tsunami or hurricane or earthquake hits so what do you do – of course, you jog down to the nearest big box hardware store and buy thirty or more doors.

And so do the other tens of thousands of homeless in your area. Assuming you have a big box hardware in your third world country, assuming it’s still standing, assuming it has several hundred thousand doors in stock, assuming you have money, assuming you have transport etc, etc, etc.

But it looks cute and that’s probably all that matters.

By Ian Milliss | Posted in architecture, building | Comments (1)

The most sincere form of flattery

13 Jan ’07 – 11:53 pm

Let’s be even more critical than usual. This stuff is just plain bloody awful. Since we are not interested in shaming we won’t even tell you where it comes from,

the point is that it is indicative of something that seems to be increasing, fake adaptive reuse, a sort of greener shabby chic.

It tries to look like adaptive reuse but it uses brand new materials, presumably because it would sully the sterility of the bourgeouis environment to actually use grubby old materials. You get to look cool and environmentally aware without giving up your wealthy consumer status.

It’s the perfect illustration of how consumerism can poison its opposition by turning the opposition into a product. Marcuse described it long ago.

By Ian Milliss | Posted in accessories, household | Comments (1)

Saved?

13 Jan ’07 – 2:46 pm


(Photo Colin Gregory Palmer)

It’s one of the most recognisable buildings in the world, certainly the most famous power station. You would think its adaptive reuse would be so obvious and simple, yet the devious twists and turns in its recent history, the trickery and betrayals, would make baby Jesus weep. Yes, it’s Battersea Power Station, roofless, vandalised, the empty shell slowly being demolished by neglect, but one of those buildings that, once seen, forever haunt the memory.


(Photo Tom Maloney)

The saga has gone on for years despite the devoted efforts of its admirers and maybe just maybe there is finally a resolution at hand. After receiving approval for its redevelopment plans in late 2006 the property company Parkview, owned by the Hwang family, almost immediately sold the site to another development company Real Estate Opportunities. Right from the time of their initial purchase in 1993 it had appeared that Parkview was not acting in good faith and would never carry out their development proposals. Given the severe deterioration of the heritage listed building on their watch their exorbitant profit leaves a very sour taste in the mouth. Now that they are finally gone real progress is possible although there is also still plenty of room for it to go wrong.

But this could be the start of something big. A growing awareness of global warming is finally getting through to even the most reptilian brained corporate leaders. The Conscious Earth reports that Exxon-Mobil, having spent US$16million since 1998 funding “global warming disinformation campaigns” (or lies, as they are usually known) has announced that it is accepting reality and will cease funding organizations that deny climate change science, such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). CEI made the unintentionally but grimly hilarious “CO2 – They call it pollution, We call it life” television ad. Exxon-Mobil will now concentrate their efforts on crippling legislation (they didn’t put it like that, exactly). Also this week the European Commission is calling for an unprecedented common energy policy.

“Europe must lead the world into a new, or maybe one should say post-industrial revolution – the development of a low-carbon economy.”

This all makes one thing clear, there will be more and more redundant coal fired power stations. Few of them are as architecturally impressive as Battersea, the largest brick building in Europe, but most will be candidates for adaptive reuse.


(Photo Dan Taylor)

By Ian Milliss | Posted in architecture, heritage | Comments (0)

The Busycle

11 Jan ’07 – 12:28 pm

Last year we linked to Moz, the creator of one less ute, a load bearing bicycle designed to carry up to 200kg. Given a recent random encounter with the man at a new years festival, it was hardly surprising that Moz should show up again, this time as part of the crew behind the construction of the Busycle.

Conceived of as a “public art project” by Heather Clark and Matthew Mazzotta, the Busycle is a “15 person 100% pedaled vehicle”. It adaptively reuses materials “ranging from office chairs to steel bed frames” in a creation where the emphasis is as much on the communal effort involved in building and powering it, as it is on the creation of an alternative mode of transport.

Over 50 people participated in the design and construction of this vehicle with an impressive diversity of backgrounds and expertise contributing to the project’s realization. A quick look at the bio’s section of the busycle website is enough to send Nicolas Bourriaud into a frenzy. His term “relational aesthetics” has vicariously attached itself to many modes of artist production as well as to notions of “newness” and “the avant garde” in contemporary art. In some ways projects like the Busycle are responsible for reclaiming and reinvigorating the territory which the term relational aesthetics sought to map out. The collaboration and engineering involved in creating the Busycle moves the relational beyond its formulaic application in the art gallery context, into territory where its identification as art becomes unimportant.

By Ben Denham | Posted in activism, art, transport | Comments (1)

Going batty

7 Jan ’07 – 8:05 pm


The world was does not belong only to humans, notwithstanding the deluded ravings of right wing religious extremists.


We share it with a still unknown number of other species and most of them can be pretty awe inspiring once you get to know them better.


What better way to spend your life than trying to make the world better for them rather than worse as we have for the last few thousands of years? (Photos:JJ Kaczanow/Bat Conservation Trust). The Bat House project by 2004 Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller sets out to do exactly that.


Although not an adaptive reuse project in the strictest sense of the word, it is an attempt to adapt the environs of the city of London to make it a more bat friendly place.

Jeremy Deller and the Bat House Project Partners are pleased to invite you to join a collaborative initiative to imagine and design a home for bats in London.

The Project highlights the potential for architects, builders, home-owners and conservationists to work together to produce wildlife-friendly building design. It connects the worlds of art and ecology to encourage public engagement with ecology issues. The Project builds on the Mayor of London’s policies to raise awareness of urban biodiversity and to support the survival of London’s ten bat species.

Each month there is a challenge and the first, ending on January 15, 2007, asks What is it like being a bat in London?

Imagine you’re a bat in London. Where do you hang out? What do you see, feel, hear, eat, need? What attracts you? What gets in your way? Use any medium you like to communicate your idea .

Like Natalie Jeremijenko’s rooftop for pigeons, this is another example of art that gets our stamp of approval.

By Ian Milliss | Posted in activism, architecture, art, Artists, building, planning | Comments (0)

Another new year

3 Jan ’07 – 11:03 pm


Happy new year wishes from all of us.

We’re in the process of making a few changes to gear up for the coming year. Firstly a slight change to our name. This blog began on blogspot as a service that was part of our art and heritage management consultancy. We used it to showcase architectural adaptive reuse that would interest our clients. After a year we had come across so many interesting projects that in August we relaunched it on its own site as a WordPress blog and since then it has rapidly taken off.

We’re now using the URL adaptivereuse.net as the blog name because that’s what people call it anyway and it reflects the fact that there is now a third contributor and we expect more before too long.

We are also expanding links and adding a new “About adaptive reuse” page to explain our rather whimsical interpretation of a term that is usually confined to architecture. And later in the year we’ll be selling our own posters and Tshirts.

If you’ve got any suggestions for further changes, now is the time to tell us.

By Ian Milliss | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (8)

Fun bags

2 Jan ’07 – 2:37 am


So you’re down at the butchers buying a steak or two, a few sausages, then you whip off your bra and pop them inside. It’s gotta be worth a discount?


That’s how adaptive reuse can be economically viable. Yes (or No!), it’s the bra that can be adaptively reused as a shopping bag, known unsurprisingly as the “No! Shopping Bag Bra” (NO! reji-bukuro bra). This environment friendly lingerie is designed to promote the reduction of plastic bag consumption. (from Triumph International Japan via Pink Tentacle)


When they tried to reduce plastic bag use in Australia the occasional International Klein Blue bag was as sexy as it got. The Japanese may be on to something here. Given that sex is already used to sell everything else, why not sustainability? Or are they using sustainability to sell bras?

By Ian Milliss | Posted in accessories, clothing | Comments (0)

Don’t waste your energy

1 Jan ’07 – 10:49 pm

Part One


There is nothing new about pedal power electricity in Australia, in fact throughout most of the twentieth century the adaptively reused bike pedal was essential to two of the mainstays of outback life, the Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air. Both relied on radio powered by a pedal generator invented in 1928 by Alfred Traeger, shown above with his first working prototype. It continued in use until late in the century when the “Traeger” was replaced by diesel generators and, more recently, solar power.


But that doesn’t mean the idea disappeared. You can still buy similar generators


including one that is hooked up to a normal bike.


But what of this Chinese version, clearly based on the adaptively reused exercise bike?

We’ve had a few laughs in the past at the uselessness of the exercise bike and at the whole sport/exercise culture, one of those delightful examples of capitalism selling a lifestyle that destroys health then making more money by selling a supposed cure for the poor health it is creating. It’s tragic that the history of human physical exertion has come to this absurdity although some slight sanity is reappearing, like redesigning cities to make them more walkable.


Now it may just be post-holiday-season dyspepsia, or our ingrained tendency to always look for the unintended consequence, but something about this exercise machine made us suspect that in a dystopic sustainable future we could be seeing rows of prisoners exercising away to generate the power to run sustainable prisons. Plus ça change.


Strangely, the prison treadmill (the hard labour part of “Sentenced to hard labour”) was common in Britain but it never took off in the US where it was viewed as a profligate waste of labour already in short supply (the chain gang was preferred). The treadmill’s exhausting, mind-numbing futility is credited with the final destruction of Oscar Wilde, yet throughout the developed world the obese, and the merely narcissistic, regularly subject themselves to a similar regime at the gym. Go figure.

Part Two

Just before posting the above, while checking something, Notions of Expenditure turned up in a search.


It’s a proposal to hook gymnasium equipment up to the grid and use all that exercise to generate power, but it’s much more than that and deserves a future post of it’s own. It’s a great site, a bit hard to decide whether it’s completely serious or not, but it’s got lots of info, proposals and interesting links – go and check it out in depth. But ya gotta laugh, because prisons and gyms are equally places of futile suffering we felt like saying great minds think alike…until we found this exasperated editorial comment on yet another “great idea” along the same lines. Originality 30%? Maybe that’s a sign that the adaptively reused gymnasium’s time has come and someone should do it.

By Ian Milliss | Posted in electronics, gadgets, household, people, transport | Comments (0)