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The 2ndHAND series by a+t magazine examines the transformation of inherited buildings and environments from a contemporary condition: activating what already exists.

Following Hybrid Buildings, this second volume, Lending Character, focuses on the adaptive reuse and renovation of the unremarkable buildings constructed in the mid-twentieth century, which today attract a large share of heritage interventions. They are the ‘Biff Lomans’* of architecture: buildings that make no claim to being exceptional and which, precisely for that reason, adapt better than buildings of strong character to new programmes, indeterminate uses and future transformations. Change of use offers them a second chance.

Rather than pursuing a new formal coherence, the projects featured share a way of acting. As a common thread, the issue proposes a decalogue. It is not meant as a style, but as a code of behaviour that makes the most of the lack of character of existing buildings. Its ten operations shift the focus from form to processes, from composition to logistics, from permanence to transformation and from appearance to experience.

*Biff Loman is the son of Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949). At the end of the play, Biff gives up the expectations of greatness his father had placed on him and accepts himself as an ordinary man.

CONTENTS (English/Spanish)

Lending Character.
Javier Mozas.

The Well-Tempered House.
EMI Architekt*innen. Zwhatt Areal, Baufeld F, Regensdorf (Switzerland) 2021-2026.

A different reading of the “well-tempered” environment.
Javier Mozas in conversation with Elli Mosayebi, EMI Architekt*innen.

WVDM Living Lab.
MAKER architecten. Brussels, (Belgium) 2021-2024.

Tuighuisstraat.
MAKER architecten. Kortrijk (Belgium) 2014-2024.

Banyan Plaza.
Atelier XÜK. Zhongxin Village, Huizhou, Guangdong Province (China) 2023-2025.

Open materiality.
Javier Mozas in conversation with Benoît Vandenbulcke and Hélène Joos, AgwA.

Angleur.
AgwA. Liège (Belgium) 2019-2026.

INSAS.
AgwA. Ixelles (Belgium) 2020-2025.

Town Hall of Mortsel.
Eagles of Architecture. Mortsel (Belgium) 2016-2025.

469 Bethnal Green Road.
Carmody Groarke. London (United Kingdom) 2023-2025.