Kämpegatan 16 Transforming a building in a state of uncertainty

Abstract

The population living in cities is estimated to rise significantly in the coming years, which makes the need for developing sustainable and resilient cities more and more urgent. Consequently, the transformation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings becomes increasingly important with regard to sustainable urban development. Buildings make up a significant amount of the built environment. Making use of existing, empty or inefficiently used buildings can provide a strategy to avoid further urban sprawl and the related claiming of more land. It simultaneously contributes to circularity and saving resources. Buildings have been and are presently designed as mono-functional objects, not able to react to changes. Therefore, buildings are at risk of facing redundancy and possibly considerable repeated refurbishment or untimely demolition. Existing buildings are even more so threatened by demolition when geographically located within city centers or otherwise strategically. In addition, these structures are also strongly affected by ongoing development in their surroundings, endangering their existence. Further, demolition in particular concerns buildings which are not protected through local policies and do not fall under specific protection regulations. Through a site and context analysis as well as thorough literature research, appropriate transformation strategies and suitable solutions for the transformation and reuse of a former storage building were developed. The building finds itself in the dichotomy between significant future urban development as well as being located in a building block with several buildings bearing protection markings. However, the former storage building at Kämpegatan 16 does not fall under specific protection regulations. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential transformation strategies which contribute to the building’s use in the future and prolonging its life cycle, taking into account the heritage surrounding the building and the impact of future development. With that, the thesis aims at questioning current procedures within urban planning with regard to the existing built environment and its impact on it. The outcome of the thesis is a proposal for the implementation of a mixed-use program onto the former storage building and the structural transformation.