Forced Reuse: Rethinking Building Conventions Through Crises

We acknowledge that our lens echoes Bernard Rudofsky’s “Architecture without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture,” which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1964. However, our approach is different on various aspects: First, Rudofsky’s exhibition came in the mid-1960s, at a time when the architectural canon had to be challenged by so-called “vernacular” approaches by non-professionals. Today, we would challenge his interpretation by arguing that these creative interpretations may not be conducted by professionals (or “pedigreed,” as he called them) in the modernist sense of the “architect,” but are nevertheless constructed spatial practitioners who challenge the conventions, codes, and legislations that professional architects follow. Second, we witness how Rudofsky’s research detached the structures studied from the dynamic and complex social and political contexts that gave them form and necessity. Our project, on the contrary, is rooted in the reasons for reuse: we choose cases that come out of particular conditions, where materials and spaces are infused with the stories and struggles of those who reuse them. Finally, our projects manifest in different visual representations: While Rudofsky focused on presenting beautiful photos that created an exotic image of vernacular architecture, we focus our attention on creating drawings and mockups that depict technical, structural, or other operational details, and that could be compiled into future knowledge without simply aestheticizing the cases.

“For the designers of our built environment, treating architecture as project (and the intellectual property) of many generations entails a transformation from creator to contributor.” Daniel Stockhammer, ed., introduction to Upcycling: Reuse and Repurposing as a Design Principle in Architecture (Triest: University of Liechtenstein, 2020), 14–33, 19, quoted in Aaron Betsky, Don't Build, Rebuild:The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture (Boston: Beacon Press, 2024).

From the Arabic badawīn, meaning “desert dwellers,” the Bedouins are identified as pastoral semi-nomads who practice cattle herding and rainfed agriculture. Ismael Abu Saad, “Education, Transition, and the Future of the Negev Bedouin Arabs” in Transitions (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 1999), 204–205. For further research on the displacement and forced sedentarization of the Bedouins, see the ongoing research by FAST: Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory / Malkit Shoshan, Desert Futures: Scenarios for Decolonization, ➝.

At the end of the Nakba of 1948, Israeli leaders had to decide quickly whether to exile or award citizenship to the Bedouins. A committee of army generals and officials from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) decided that only “friendly” or “loyal” Bedouin tribes would be allowed to remain in the Naqab/Negev. These would be concentrated in three centers and forced to join the “minority” units of the IDF. Mansour Nasasra, The Naqab Bedouins: A Century of Politics and Resistance, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022), 106; Emanuel Marx, Bedouin of the Negev (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1967), 14.

The Sayaj (or Siyag, meaning fence in Hebrew) was a confined area in the northeast of the city of Be’er Sheva, where Bedouins were placed under strict military rule that limited their movement and grazing activities. Known for its low rainfall and availability of pastoral lands, this area was significantly infertile in comparison with the land left behind in the Western Naqab (al-mantiqa al-gharbiya, a term referring to native Bedouin land). “Processes of Dispossession in the Negev-Naqab,” the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, (2012), 3; Nasasra, The Naqab Bedouin, 139.

The Israeli government launched the construction of the first seven new Arab towns to be erected since 1948: Rahat, Laqiya, Hura, Tel Sheva, Kusseifa, Aru’er, and Segev Shalom. These urban townships were designed to receive the populations of those that the state aimed to uproot from their land by offering water and electricity, as well as clinics, schools, roads, and housing that were not under the constant threat of demolition. Malkit Shoshan, Atlas of the Conflict, Israel-Palestine (Rotterdam: 010, 2010), 118–119, 147, 380.

In a conversation with the authors on January 30, 2025.

This form of reuse is particularly relevant when the repurposed element was originally produced through industry-intensive manufacturing or is composed of materials with high embodied carbon—such as concrete, steel, and glass—making their circular reuse both logical and sustainable. Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), "Material," Sustainable Building Materials Hub, accessed February 10, 2025. ➝.

From an interview with Cuban artist-ethnographer Ernesto Oroza, April 10th 2025. For more, see ➝.

Maja Asaa, Mira Kongstein and Ernesto Oroza, Editing Havana- Stories of Popular Housing (Aristo Bogforlag, 2011), pp. 8-9,10-17

The source of the term barbacoa has two possibilities: In Editing Havana, the authors specify its origin from pre-colonial indigenous habitants of the island, meaning crude hut.’ Barbacoa, is also the etymological origin of the English word barbecue: according to the Oxford English Dictionary, barbacoa translates to a "framework of sticks set upon posts." Maja Asaa, Mira Kongstein, and Ernesto Oroza, Editing Havana: Stories of Popular Housing (Holte, Denmark: Aristo Bogforlag, 2011), 11.

Asaa, Kongstein, and Oroza, Editing Havana, 29.

Asaa, Kongstein, and Oroza, Editing Havana, 150–74.

Anadis González in an interview with the authors on February 2, 2025.

Ernesto Oroza, "Architecture of Necessity: Moral Modulor," Ernesto Oroza, last modified September 14, 2013, accessed February 12, 2025, ➝.

“When modifying existing structures for new uses, it is crucial to avoid overcomplicating them with additional structural interventions, ensuring future transformations can be achieved with simple adjustments and minimal material resources, aligning with sustainable principles. Designing the infill of load-bearing frameworks as temporary and movable elements allows for easy reconfiguration and reuse within the same or different structural frameworks. This approach keeps material resources of both the Hardware (structural framework) and Software (infill) accessible for future adaptations and reuse.” Artem Kitaev, “Reinterpreting the Existing: A Critical Review of Hardware and Software in Architecture Design Principles as a Strategy for Adapting Existing Built Stock to Evolving Needs” Practices In Research, no. 5 (2024), 95–120.

Sergei Kulikov, “Last Stop Avtobusniki," Domus, February 8, 2012, accessed February 5, 2025, ➝.

Katarína Poliačiková, "Balcony is a (fantastic) feeling," Kinečko, May 18, 2022, accessed February 8, 2025, ➝.

Vlada Mironova, "Human Story Behind Every Balcony: An Interview with Roman Blazhan – the Director of 'Enter Through the Balcony,'" Gwara Media, January 19, 2021, accessed February 7, 2025, ➝.

Chris McNab, Abandoned Wrecks (London: Amber Books Limited, 2017).