calls for articles

on site review 47:

stand still and fix things

Restoration, reconstruction, replacement, refurbishment, reonovation

Rebuilding, redesigning, repairing — we know how to do these things.

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Life as we know it, as we were trained to navigate through architecture and planning, is done. It will never be the same again, so what are our options now?

We can simply keep going on the paths we know, even although they keep being bombed, or burned, or buried.

We can make something out of nothing, or rather out of things previously considered nothing: rubble, debris, abandoned structures, inhospitable landscapes.

We can do some re-thinking about consumption and class: do we need more buildings, or just better use of buildings.

Is history a viable way to proceed? after all we just saw a twelfth century French cathedral reconstructed in 5 years, eschewing any of the technologies that have developed since 1345. What is the lesson in this?

The territory is wide, and wide open, for a discussion of strategies with which we might embrace uncertainty and instability. If you find yourself thinking about such things in your own work, or writing, or in something you have seen, or read, or thought, consider sharing it with us. There is no one right or wrong way, just an array of convergent and divergent streams. And it goes without saying that we can learn from and collaborate with all fields, from art and design; from landscape, infrastructure, construction and engineering; from social movements, history, armies and front lines.

Proposals please by May 30, 2025. Proposals are outlines that we take very seriously, and tend to hold you to them. Plan your proposal if you are able to eventually submit an full article (text, drawings, photographs) six weeks later, by July 15, 2025.

Include a brief text description outlining what you wish to say and how your submission addresses the overall theme of this issue. Please use our contact form. This form does not accept images, but send your proposal text, we will get back to you by email, and then if needed to amplify your proposal you can send images.

If you are interested we have a page of specifications and information about possible honoraria here: https://onsitereview.ca/specs

Arno Brandlhuber, 0113 Brunnenstrasse 9, Berlin 2007-2010. The gallery and studies at Brunnenstrasse 9 are built on the foundations of a ruin, the result of a bad investment in the 1990s. This made the site unattractive to corporate investors who were buying empty lots at the time. Brandlhuber, investor and builder, prurchased the site for the running costs minus demolition expenses. There are strategies, clever and intersititial, for ways to build. Brandlhuber’s other projects: https://bplus.xyz

A house in Nova Scotia in the process of being upcycled. Angela Silver wrote about this project in *On Site review 45: houses and housing*. Although we understand the term *upcycling*, how are such materials actually used? Is all the timber, lumber or wood, full of nails? What are the successes and pitfalls in such projects?

Please forward this link – https://onsitereview.ca/callforarts to anyone you feel might be interested in contributing to this or any of our discussions.