Dublin, Ireland--(Business Wire)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of “Architectural Voices: Listening to Old Buildings” to their offering. This book discusses the ways that architects go about redeveloping old buildings. In particular, it examines how architects respond to the voices, spirit or character within the buildings. Some buildings have such charm and overpowering sense of history that architects minimize modern interventions by preserving what they can and using traditional materials; others deliberately juxtapose contemporary designs against the original fabric of the old building; others almost ignore the properties of the original building and treat it as a canvass on which to apply new forms. This book does not take a position on whether or not any particular approach is right or wrong, instead it looks at how different architects have responded to the historic buildings they have worked on. Through case studies and interviews, the book looks at how a wide range of buildings and spaces have been re-imagined, including industrial structures, barrack blocks, churches, mines and ruins. Interviews with architects, academics and artists, as well as a close analysis of the buildings themselves, uncover a wide variety of ways (both poetic and technical) in which careful listening can enhance our understanding of a place. This collection of more than 25 case studies includes: the rescue of the worlds oldest iron-framed building in Shropshire; the redevelopment of a Soho brothel into a boutique hotel; the reinvention of an abandoned cathedral in Bristol; the conversion of an army HQ into the new Saatchi Gallery in London; observations on grain silos in Buffalo, New York state, and ruins in Mexico.
