Architectural Engineering and Existing Buildings

Earlier this month I gave a talk called “Architectural Engineering and Existing Buildings” at the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) 2021 Conference. Here’s a teaser from Twitter:

The talk begins from the premise that future AE graduates will enter a world of professional practice where renovations of existing buildings will be increasingly important, and that we are likely not preparing them adequately for investigative and design problems regarding existing buildings and systems. It also clarifies that this is a different subject from Historic Preservation.

Then, it reviews some of the topics and resources that are available for anyone who wants to consider adding more content about adaptive reuse to an AE class or curriculum. I briefly discuss concepts such as Building Pathology, and Stewart Brand’s “Shearing Layers.”

The full talk (18:40) can be seen here:

Please comment if you have additional ideas!