Adaptations in the life cycle of architectural objects

Everything in our environment changes and they are transformed by technologic, economic, ecologic, politic, cultural and social values. This transformation state also appears in architectural objects and subjects. Both natural conditions and economic, geographic, cultural, social, politic, ecologic factors and decision mechanisms (such as users, investors, architects, contractors, institutions) affect the life cycle of an architectural object. Generally, it is not usual to predict the possible changes but it is a reality that architectural objects can continue their life with the changes of various scales and transformation processes. Architectural objects adapt to their environment or disappear in time. In this process, architectural objects can change or be changed with the reflection of environmental, economic, technological, political, cultural and social values in their life cycles which begin with site or investment decisions, design process, construction process and the usage period. In this thesis, the changes in the life cycle of an architectural object which can have different way of livings, are determined as abandonment, destruction, reconstruction and adaptation. In accordance with these changes, if an architectural object is abandoned, it will survive in natural conditions. If it is destructed, its life cycle can be over. If it is reconstructed, it will survive as a replica or a new interpretation. If it is adapted, it can continue to live with a new architectural production. Expecting the architectural object's continuing to its life always as its initial design, is described in the study as ''fetishizing the architectural object''. Architect or the user fetishize the architectural object and oppose the possible changes. That means, the architectural object can not respond to the changes that occur beyond its physical presence. In this situation, architectural object is restricted for any transformation or change by its users, designers or investors. Architectural objects are begun to be designed as flexible, open and having the ability of responding to the changes. According to Bouman (2005), ''For a long time architecture was thought of as a solid reality and entity: buildings, objects, matter, place, and a set of geometric relationships. But recently, architects have begun to understand their products as liquid, animating their bodies, hypersurfacing their walls, crossbreeding different locations, experimenting with new geometries (p.22). At the present time, the studies from various disciplines such as biology, chemistry and digital technologies help to produce scenarios for change of an architectural object. An architectural object can adapt or respond to the changes in the aim of these scenarios. For example, there are studies on smart materials which can adapt the values of the environment such as humidity or weight. The conditions which can create various behaviour patterns according to the environmental circumstances in terms of material and form, enable the buildings to adapt their environment. On the other hand, mechanic activities which can be controlled by the users such as moving surfaces, enables buildings to adapt the environment conditions as day light, rain, wind effect, etc. Furthermore, a building's ageing or corrosions are the adaptations that become by itself under the natural conditions. In this case, architectural objects adapt their environment through the technological improvements of various disciplines such as of biology, chemistry in terms of material and form. They can also adapt the environment with the help of the mechanical systems towards the effects of natural conditions such as day light or rain. On the other hand, the architectural objects can be adapted for their environment with the various scale of interventions. The subject of the study has a broad research area. In this thesis, it is handled with the adaptation processes and interventions to an architectural object which is derived from many factors as structural ageing, functional change, preservation of cultural heritage, economic expectations, ecologic requirements and ideological reasons. In our life which have inevitable changes, on one side the change scenarios realize under the natural conditions or they are included since the beginning of the design stage. On the other side, although it is known that an architectural object can not live forever, it is designed as it will live forever. This timeless situation which is imagined consciously or unconsciously by the architects, disappears in the life time of the architectural object. Timeless means, considering the physical building as eternal or without time. Buildings have a limited life time. The architectural objects' life which is considered as if it is permanent generally, disappears because of the laws of the nature or artificial factors after a while. This situation can actualize in different periods like days, centuries or millenniums. The lifecycle of the architectural objects before their end, can continue with updating for the changes and the adaptations. In the architectural practice, buildings which can change or be changed by various dynamics are indicators of the design process which is continuing. The indicators can occur by the effects of the nature or different scale of interventions as replacement of architectural elements, additions or removal of architectural elements like window, roof, stair, functional change, making additions of new spaces. The scale of the intervention can change because of economic, politic, geographic, cultural, technologic, etc. countless dynamics. It is also affected by the demands and impacts of users, such as the environment, functional and performance requirements. The changes which are planned or not, happens with the users or the environment, can generally make ordinary and sometimes extraordinary cases. For example, a church's transforming to a library or a skate park, a silo's or a water tower's transforming to a dwelling can be given for this extraordinary changes. In these cases, the new and old come together and make a heterogeneous environment. The new condition which is coming with the interaction of the new and old is open for unexpected changes and a creative process. The architectural objects are adapted for the new life expectations with new solutions and interventions. These creative adaptations which an architectural object can have in its life cycle creates the motivation of the thesis study. Adaptation is a concept that presents the ability of orienting the conditions and is generally used in the study to explain the interventions to an architectural object. ''The architectural adaptation'' can be described as the effects of all kind of changers and transformers to an architectural object with the complicated dynamics of life. According to Eisenmann, some of the buildings are contributions in terms of architecture but this contribution occurs when the building is being constructed and the building's being in its place is no longer a contribution for the knowledge of architecture (Yürekli, 2004). At this point, when discussing in which stage the building can contribute to architecture in the context of architectural knowledge, it is important to examine the adaptations which the architectural object have with the complicated dynamics of life. In the context of this study, it is argued that the architectural adaptations can provide architectural knowledge. The interventions to the existing buildings enable for the new techniques, new usage of materials and details. The aim of the thesis is trying to open the relationship between the adaptation and the architecture, examining the reflections of the unexpected changes to the architectural objects which are thought that their design process are finished and exploring the potentials of the changes through the examples which are adapted. These changes create a new architectural production with the design processes which happen after the completion of the design of an existing architectural object through the unforeseen change scenarios in the phase of design. These productions are opened in the study through the re-use examples which needs larger scale of interventions. The adaptation is carried out through the existing buildings and it is related with the re-use of these. At the present time, the re-use examples of the architectural objects are becoming increasingly widespread through especially in Europe. In this thesis, processes and the dynamics of the background of these re-use examples which are decreasing from time to time, increasingly taking over and becoming widespread in the architectural context are tried to be read. The thesis generally handles the possible adapted conditions through the re-use examples and examines this under the heading of ''the adaptation of the architectural object''. The re-use of an existing architectural object depends on many happenings and processes which affects the architectural history. The events and processes which are affecting the re-use of a building are opened with the industrial revolution, capitalism and globalization, improvements in building technologies, conservation movements and ecologic approaches when considering the global scale. Besides, so many different factors cause changes in the interventions of the architectural object's adaptation process. In the context of the thesis study, these factors are determined as structural ageing, functional change, preservation of cultural heritage, economic expectations, ecologic requirements and ideological reasons. The life cycle of an architectural object continues according to these factors and the decisions of adaptation. These decisions change according to the architectural attitude including 'protecting the character of the existing building', 'changing the character of the existing building with the recognizable additions' or 'disappearing the character of the existing building with the new transformation'. The study tries to open the adaptation process and the interventions of an existing architectural object. It tries to open the events and processes of the adaptation examples and touches upon these effects of the events and processes. It tries to understand the ways of adapting to the environment and life with the architectural attitudes and approaches. At this point, the aim is not debating the positive or negative effects of the result of the adaptation examples, it is taking advantage of the architectural process and knowledge which are produced in this process.