Stella Papanicolaou
Stella Papanicolaou is a senior lecturer at the School of Architecture Planning and Geomatics at the University of Cape Town, where she has taught since 2001. She currently co-runs the postgraduate vertical studio elective, Adapt! that focusses on design with existing buildings. She also teaches histories and theories of modern movement architecture in the Bachelor of Architectural Studies (BAS) degree programme.
She has worked in practice for Gabriel Fagan Architects (1984), Munnik Visser Architects on projects with Roelof Uytenbogaardt and Julian Elliott (1997-99), at dhk Architects (2001-02), has worked in collaboration with Indigo Architects (2000 & 2005) and ran her own practice (2000-06) prior to taking on a full time academic post at UCT in 2008.
After obtaining the B.A.S degree at U.C.T. and before completing the B.Arch degree, Stella went to Venice where she stayed from 1985 to 1993. There she attended several and diverse courses at the University of Architecture in Venice (IUAV) and worked as assistant director for the International Centre for Cities on Water, where, among other activities, became involved in the editing of several the Centre’s publications.
Her interests lie in the adaptation of existing buildings; modern movement buildings in the Global South, exploring meaning in the production of space with a focus on the role of architecture on the public realm; and is developing tools for critical thinking to enhance the creative process in the studio.
She has worked in practice for Gabriel Fagan Architects (1984), Munnik Visser Architects on projects with Roelof Uytenbogaardt and Julian Elliott (1997-99), at dhk Architects (2001-02), has worked in collaboration with Indigo Architects (2000 & 2005) and ran her own practice (2000-06) prior to taking on a full time academic post at UCT in 2008.
After obtaining the B.A.S degree at U.C.T. and before completing the B.Arch degree, Stella went to Venice where she stayed from 1985 to 1993. There she attended several and diverse courses at the University of Architecture in Venice (IUAV) and worked as assistant director for the International Centre for Cities on Water, where, among other activities, became involved in the editing of several the Centre’s publications.
Her interests lie in the adaptation of existing buildings; modern movement buildings in the Global South, exploring meaning in the production of space with a focus on the role of architecture on the public realm; and is developing tools for critical thinking to enhance the creative process in the studio.
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Adaptive reuse and Time by Stella Papanicolaou
As part of the International Forum Cultural Spaces for Kigali, a workshop for students was hosted at the University of Rwanda’s School of architecture and Built Environment from 10 - 14 March 2019. The participants included the University of Rwanda (UR), Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) and the University of Cape Town (UCT). The objective of the workshop and the Forum was to test the adaptive potential of unused buildings near Kigali’s city centre, and to evaluate whether disused buildings – such as the Kigali Central Prison (also known as Nyarugenge Prison, Gikondo Prison, or simply “1930”) and the Ecole Belge (the former Belgian School) – could be adapted for use as precincts for the production and performance of art and culture.
The workshop targeted students, who, navigating their cultural differences, presented a variety of options or possibilities using visualisation methods. This was done in cooperative workshops, with presentations by students and professionals from across Africa, developing an independent, continent-specific approach.
The success of the Rwandan workshop, and its reiteration in Zanzibar, are presented here.
The book is a curated collection of thirty-three contemporary examples of building transformations or adaptations from five different continents. While the original buildings are in some cases more than three hundred years old, the transformations were all completed from 2013 to 2018. In some cases, the original buildings were designed by revered architects like Antoní Gaudi, while in others the new interventions were designed by well-known contemporary practices that include Zaha Hadid Architects and Heatherwick Studio amongst others. Some buildings are of an iconic nature, while others are more understated and are simply embedded in their surrounding built fabric.
The projects included here were all designed using a variety of approaches, but as a collection of works, five strategies emerged as a way of identifying the key design driver for each intervention: These are Architecture as Furniture, Renovation and Insertion, Structural Modification, Reconstruction and Expansion, and External Juxtaposition. These strategies may serve as a way of understanding and talking about building transformation or adaptive reuse and they could potentially help to strengthen the conceptual clarity of future interventions in existing buildings.
The strategies and case studies aim to show different ways of generating a conversation between past and present and achieving a balance between memory and imagination. They are about deciding what to value and what to contribute in order to allow for an imaginative dialogue between old and new.
As part of the International Forum Cultural Spaces for Kigali, a workshop for students was hosted at the University of Rwanda’s School of architecture and Built Environment from 10 - 14 March 2019. The participants included the University of Rwanda (UR), Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) and the University of Cape Town (UCT). The objective of the workshop and the Forum was to test the adaptive potential of unused buildings near Kigali’s city centre, and to evaluate whether disused buildings – such as the Kigali Central Prison (also known as Nyarugenge Prison, Gikondo Prison, or simply “1930”) and the Ecole Belge (the former Belgian School) – could be adapted for use as precincts for the production and performance of art and culture.
The workshop targeted students, who, navigating their cultural differences, presented a variety of options or possibilities using visualisation methods. This was done in cooperative workshops, with presentations by students and professionals from across Africa, developing an independent, continent-specific approach.
The success of the Rwandan workshop, and its reiteration in Zanzibar, are presented here.
The book is a curated collection of thirty-three contemporary examples of building transformations or adaptations from five different continents. While the original buildings are in some cases more than three hundred years old, the transformations were all completed from 2013 to 2018. In some cases, the original buildings were designed by revered architects like Antoní Gaudi, while in others the new interventions were designed by well-known contemporary practices that include Zaha Hadid Architects and Heatherwick Studio amongst others. Some buildings are of an iconic nature, while others are more understated and are simply embedded in their surrounding built fabric.
The projects included here were all designed using a variety of approaches, but as a collection of works, five strategies emerged as a way of identifying the key design driver for each intervention: These are Architecture as Furniture, Renovation and Insertion, Structural Modification, Reconstruction and Expansion, and External Juxtaposition. These strategies may serve as a way of understanding and talking about building transformation or adaptive reuse and they could potentially help to strengthen the conceptual clarity of future interventions in existing buildings.
The strategies and case studies aim to show different ways of generating a conversation between past and present and achieving a balance between memory and imagination. They are about deciding what to value and what to contribute in order to allow for an imaginative dialogue between old and new.