Article by GXN
The NXT Magazine: Transformations of Care
For much of the last century, architecture has operated under the idea of tabula rasa – the belief that land can be treated as a blank slate, free from history, context, or memory. This offered an efficient and optimistic way to imagine the future, where the past was seen as an obstacle and all energy was directed toward planning the new. Rooted in both education and professional culture, this mindset shaped the European urban fabric of the 20th century, fostering a fractured relationship with tahe land and a careless attitude toward the complex realities of place.
But tabula rasa is ultimately a myth, a construct with no basis in reality. No site is ever truly empty, and no site is a blank slate. Every place hosts preexistences; structures, landscapes, memories, informal systems of use. These are not remnants to be erased, but complex realities to be worked with.
This realization is reshaping architectural practice. Care is becoming a key principle, not only in social terms, but also in how we recognize and engage with the value of existing materials, spaces, and ecologies.
Working with reused materials presents distinct challenges: it requires more time, greater attention, and a high level of hands-on decision-making, often on site. It also introduces complex supply, storage, and coordination demands that standard design processes rarely address. Still, we search for value in every beam, every brick, every fragment. We trace what can be kept, reused, or adapted. We map, we catalogue. We don’t demolish by default – we dismantle with care. We work within the complexity of what exists, rather than against it.
We work within the complexity of what exists, rather than against it.
Ultimately, we believe that to transform with care is to acknowledge that architecture is not only the art of making, but also the art of continuing – of carrying forward what was, into what might be.
Photos: 3xN
Precast concrete slabs, among the most common elements in Danish construction, are often the first to be crushed during demolition. In collaboration with demolition companies, we learned how to carefully identify, salvage, and store these elements for future use and new applications.
Elements from existing buildings can be understood as ingredients for future design. Many still hold significant value and can be reused with minimal processing. In the Ressource Blokken research project, we mapped components from 15 buildings slated for demolition and created an “ingredient list” for future architects to draw from; saving resources and supporting a circular design approach.
Photos: Claus Peuckert
At Tscherning House, 89% of all materials used in the renovation project were salvaged from demolition. Each piece has a story that can be traced back to a particular building or process.
When we look at existing elements with new eyes, we begin to see their potential. At 2 Finsbury Avenue in London, for example, we harvested aluminum exterior panels from the existing building and repurposed them as interior finishes once the tower was completed. Instead of being sent to disposal, the elements were demounted and remanufactured.
Photo: 3xN
GXN
An independent design-driven research studio, that bridges architecture and innovation through circular and behavioural design. Working across disciplines, developing new methods, materials, and strategies that align people, planet, and practice; transforming how sustainability is embedded in the built environment.
The magazine was published with the support of Statens Kunstfond.
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