| Abstract |
As redevelopment of already built-up sites expands in North American cities, tearing down large modern buildings is also accelerating. In pursuit of circular economy and sustainable building ideals, traditional practices like deconstruction for salvage and reuse are being revived. However, a shift toward valuing existing buildings as material banks, as implied in the rise of "urban mining," challenges established material heritage values. Attempts to salvage and reuse modern materials and assemblies raise specific issues, notably the perceived obsolescence of industrial materials and modern buildings and the complex and difficult values of hazardous or experimental elements. In some cases, reinventing modern materials with new uses in new places will expand or reframe heritage values while helping us learn how to address their challenges as objects of materials conservation. To evaluate current practices, this paper discusses selected examples from Ottawa's postwar urban landscape, each of which illustrates the range of issues for alternatives to de mo li tion. Specific opportunities for modern heritage include re orienting salvage efforts to the scale of the component and redefining materials reuse as a critique of modernist models of obsolescence and materials waste. |
