Andreas Lechner, Gennaro Postiglione, Francesca Serrazanetti, Maike Gold
Architectural Affordances – Typologies of Umbau
Naples: Thymos Books 2025,
312 pages, English, ISBN 978-88-32072-56-3
Architectural Affordances investigates type through a shared yellow–red drawing protocol that traces successive stages of material and functional change, making the relationship between transformation and permanence legible in plan, section and elevation. This temporal reading frames architectural affordances as capacities for further adaptation shaped by earlier design decisions. What a building can still become depends on its inherited configuration and the conditions under which it is transformed. Drawings reveal spatial and material possibilities; accompanying annotations situate these within the historical circumstances that enabled, constrained or redirected these changes.
Architectural Affordances – Typologies of Umbau draws on years of research and teaching by Andreas Lechner and Gennaro Postiglione at Politecnico di Milano. Edited in collaboration with Francesca Serrazanetti and Maike Gold, the book examines 30 international Umbau projects—architectural transformations—across three temporal scales: several centuries, more than a century, and within a single century. Each project is documented through a plan, section and elevation, with yellow–red diagrams and annotations tracing its history of alteration and reuse.
The thirty international projects are presented at the same scale and organised into three temporal regimes of Umbau. The first comprises formally enduring typologies transformed across centuries; the second, institutional and representational typologies adapted over more than a hundred years; the third, ambiguous or generic typologies transformed within a single century. Set side by side, the three groups make visible that transformation itself has typologies, distinguished by the differing temporal persistence of architectural form.
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)
Essays
Andreas Lechner & Gennaro Postiglione
Francesca Serrazanetti & Maike Gold
Hermann Czech
Victoria Easton
Eva Kuss
Angelo Lunati
Chronology
2023 — International call for papers inviting practitioners and scholars to contribute drawn genealogies.
2025 — First edition (sold out)
2026 — Second edition (sold out)
Contributors & Projects
Noora Aljabi
> US Post Office/63rd House
Fabrizia Berlingieri
> House and Museum at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
Đorđe Bulajić
> Banja Luka Stadt Bahnhof/Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic of Srpska
Patrick Thomas Byrne and Je Yen Tan
> Geldmacher Villa/Deutsches Architekturmuseum
Camila Burgos Vargas
> Serrería Belga/Espacio expositivo Serrería Belga
Denis Dalladaku
> Halle aux Blés et Farines/Bourse de Commerce
Stephanie Davidson
> 577 Niagara Street
Fabiana Dicuonzo
> House of Quinta de Serralves/Casa de Serralves Museum
Emilio Ellena
> Palazzo Madama
Luca Esposito
> Kindergarden/Casa Asilo
GAFPA
> Chapel of our Lady/House
Giuseppe Felice Greppi
> City Parliament/Palazzo della Ragione
Jose Sinhue Gonzalez Mesa Balderas and Yuki Kawata
> Single Family House/Single Family House
Takumi Kondo and Ala Talebian
> Diposit de les Aigues/UPF Library
Yingqi Lan and Che Xiao
> Dominican Monastery/City Library Mecheln
Tomás Martínez García and Mariya Romanosova
> University Building Politecnico di Milano
Nuno Valentim, Arquitectura e Reabilitação
> Casa Andresen/Galeria da Biodiversidade
Onsitestudio
> Aerhotel/ED.G.E.
Filippo Oppimitti
> Philips Telecommunications Factory/The New Farm
Katharina Paschburg
> Metal and welding workshop/ZHAW School of Architecture
Loris Luigi Perillo
> City Parliament/Palazzo della Ragione
Clara Presa
> Provianda Santa Marta
Georg Rafailidis
> 577 Niagara Street
Fabian Tobias Reiner
> Georgian Townhouses/Architectural Association
Susanna Risi
> Halle aux Blés et Farines/Bourse de Commerce
Spridd
> St Paul's Church/Mötesplats Mariatorget
Pavle Stamenović
> Banja Luka Stadt Bahnhof/Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic of Srpska
Laura Suvieri
> Fonderie SABIEM/Opificio Golinelli – Centro Arti e Scienze Golinelli
Jean-Benoît Vétillard Architecture
> Palazzo Medici Riccardi/Museum, Public Library, Florence Metropolitan Council
Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi
> Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Flip-through (double page spreads)
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.
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ARCHITEKT ANDREAS LECHNER
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8010 Graz
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8010 Graz
Austria
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