Architectural Affordances – Typologies of Umbau
The book 'Architectural Affordances – Typologies of Umbau' is the result of perennial research and teaching by Andreas Lechner and Gennaro Postiglione at Politecnico di Milano.
Andreas Lechner, Gennaro Postiglione, Francesca Serrazanetti, Maike Gold, eds.
Architectural Affordances – Typologies of Umbau, Naples: Thymos Books 2025
312 pages, English, ISBN 978-88-32072-56-3
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Scientific Committee
Matthias Ballestrem (Bauhaus Earth)
Marco Bovati (Politecnico di Milano)
Antonio Carvalho (Politecnico di Milano)
Lorenzo De Chiffre (TU Wien)
Victoria Easton (ETH Zürich)
Andreas Lechner (TU Graz)
Angelo Lunati (Politecnico di Milano)
Gennaro Postiglione (Politecnico di Milano)
Paola Scala (Università di Napoli, Federico II)
Coordination
Maike Gold (TU Graz)
Francesca Serrazanetti (Politecnico di Milano)
The book 'Architectural Affordances – Typologies of Umbau' is the result of perennial research and teaching by Andreas Lechner and Gennaro Postiglione at Politecnico di Milano. Edited in collaboration with Francesca Serrazanetti and Maike Gold, it investigates 30 international Umbau projects—architectural transformations—through three temporal scales: those spanning centuries, those exceeding a hundred years, and those occurring within a single century. Each project's material and functional transformation history is illustrated with one plan, section, and elevation, alongside yellow-red diagrams that trace the stages of change.
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The projects featured in the book were selected through an international call for papers, with a scientific committee curating the most thought-provoking and exemplary submissions. Central to the book is the exploration of the dynamic interplay between enduring structural elements and temporary components, illustrating architecture's ability to adapt to shifting societal and temporal demands. Traditional buildings demonstrate their versatility through established typologies, enabling diverse and enduring uses over time. In contrast, contemporary construction—often characterized by the separation of structural frameworks and building envelopes—introduces new complexities that call for inventive, autonomous, and adaptive design strategies.
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At the core of the book are architectural drawings, which function not only as records of transformation but also as essential generative tools within the discipline, bridging historical precedents with future architectural paradigms. By uncovering the affordances embedded within built forms, the book develops a contemporary, "drawn" theory of transformation, offering nuanced perspectives on some of the most pressing issues in architectural practice today. Supplemented with essays and Hermann Czech’s seminal 1997 text 'Umbau', this book is an essential resource for architects, scholars, and students. It encourages rethinking adaptation and reuse as vital strategies within contemporary architectural practice.
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Authors and contributors biographies
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The projects featured in the book were selected through an international call for papers, with a scientific committee curating the most thought-provoking and exemplary submissions. Central to the book is the exploration of the dynamic interplay between enduring structural elements and temporary components, illustrating architecture's ability to adapt to shifting societal and temporal demands. Traditional buildings demonstrate their versatility through established typologies, enabling diverse and enduring uses over time. In contrast, contemporary construction—often characterized by the separation of structural frameworks and building envelopes—introduces new complexities that call for inventive, autonomous, and adaptive design strategies.
At the core of the book are architectural drawings, which function not only as records of transformation but also as essential generative tools within the discipline, bridging historical precedents with future architectural paradigms. By uncovering the affordances embedded within built forms, the book develops a contemporary, "drawn" theory of transformation, offering nuanced perspectives on some of the most pressing issues in architectural practice today. Supplemented with essays and Hermann Czech’s seminal 1997 text 'Umbau', this book is an essential resource for architects, scholars, and students. It encourages rethinking adaptation and reuse as vital strategies within contemporary architectural practice.
Authors and contributors biographies
Architectural Affordances is a collection of drawings that trace transformations in thirty buildings over time. Organized into three categories based on time-periods and life cycles – centuries, over one hundred years, and less than a hundred years –, the atlas gathers consistent floor plans, sections, and elevations that facilitate the study of Umbau as major and minor transformations of buildings alongside yellow-red plans. These transformation, extension and redevelopment projects were compiled through a call for papers and drawn and assembled by international architects from both practice and academia. The resulting atlas not only depicts changes in the material composition but also presents the mediation of forms and functions as a temporally and socially conditioned appropriation of affordances offered by built spatial arrangements. What the constants of primary construction elements illustrate are a certain resistance to change, which can endure for centuries, while individual objects, non-load-bearing walls, surfaces, or furnishings, as well as the accommodation of specific uses, possess a more temporary character. The interplay among these different time-periods creates gaps that we, as architects, bridge creatively through drawing. Therefore, architectural drawing plays a central role in the book not only as a form of notation for architectural ideas, allowing us to forge new/old bridges towards a theory of transformation, but also as evidence and recognition of the generative potentials of architectural types. As Typologies of Umbau, the gathered projects illustrate a familiar tension. Historical buildings seemingly align with architectural types – as formal structures or concepts of organizing forms that give architectural elements a recognizable order, allowing for centuries of diverse uses and adaptations. The potential separation of the building envelope from the load-bearing structure in modern construction requires the designer to make a further effort and challenge, both in terms of interpretation and autonomy.
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Unless otherwise stated, all materials on this website and the ideas incorporated herein, as an instrument of professional service, are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights belonging to Andreas Lechner, its affiliates or its licensors and all such rights are hereby asserted and reserved. No part of this website may be copied, reproduced, republished, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way for commercial purposes. Any modification or use of the information contained on this website for any purpose not explicitly permitted without prior written consent is a violation of the author’s intellectual property rights and is strictly prohibited.
︎︎︎Site Map, Imprint & DSGVO