Includes bibliographical references.

1. Old buildings -- Appeal of old buildings -- Familiar idioms -- The urge to preserve -- Buildings have finite useful lives -- Not everything old is good -- Interventions -- 2. Sustainable urban environments -- Critical components for urban sustainability -- Reuse and repurposing of old buildings -- Public policy -- Will smart growth take place? -- Sustainable design implications -- Aesthetic implications -- 3. Design propositions -- The question of context -- Lessons from history -- Design integrity -- Contrast -- Critical viewpoints -- Exemplary work -- 4. Project execution -- Stakeholders -- Expectations -- Design difficulties -- Building in the already-built environment -- Successful execution -- 5. Case studies -- Case study selections -- Small interventions -- Dovecote studio, Haworth Tompkins -- Hutong Bubble 32, MAD Architects -- Bar Guru Bar, KLab Architects -- Ozuluama penthouse, Architects Collective, at. 103 -- II Forte di Fortezza, Markus Scherer and Walter Dietl -- Major additions -- Knocktopher Friary, ODOS Architects -- Walden studios, Jensen & Macy Architects -- Contemporary Jewish Museum, Studio Daniel Libeskind -- Morgan Library, Renzo Piano Building Workshop -- Moderna Museet Malmo, Tham & Videgard Arkitekter -- CaixaForum Madrid, Herzog & de Meuron -- 1 Kearny Street, Office of Charles Bloszies -- Hearst Tower, Foster + Partners -- Repurposed buildings -- Village Street Live-Work, Santos Prescott & Associates -- Selexyz Dominicanen Bookshop, Merkx + Girod Architects, KMD architects, Jensen & Macy architects, David Meckel -- None of the above -- 185 Post Street, Brand + Allen Architects -- Hotel Fouquet's Barriere, Edouard Francois -- Recycled batteries, Office of Charles Bloszies.

Increasingly, architects are hired to design new work for existing structures. Whether for reasons of preservation, sustainability, or cost-effectiveness, the movement to reuse buildings presents a variety of design challenges and opportunities. Old Buildings, New Designs is an Architecture Brief devoted to working within a given architectural fabric from the technical issues that arise from aging construction to the controversy generated by the various project stakeholders to the unique aesthetic possibilities created through the juxtaposition of old and new.