Robert & Esslinger (Zofingen)

ARCHITECTURE AND MONUMENT PRESERVATION If a monument is not used, it can only be preserved in exceptional cases. For most buildings, the loss of a use means the end of maintenance and thus its decline. When the previous use expires, a new use should be sought, with a structural framework to be considered so that the new use can function. Economically justified or culturally motivated reuse of existing building fabric.

The distinction between these very different preservation motivations is very important, as they lead to basic evaluation standards and behaviors. The first is recycling, to put it casually, and the second can be combined with historic preservation.

Recycling is interested in the technical usability of the residual material, that is, primarily economically oriented, conversion for the intended purpose is cheaper or demolition and new construction. Here the question arises to what extent the old building fabric is suitable for the new use at all and what ties and restrictions the customer is willing to accept by taking over existing building structures. When you add demolition, disposal of waste materials, energy consumption and pollution for the extraction and processing of new building materials and their transportation to the cost of new construction, recycling pays off in most cases.