The Existing as a Precondition
Methodical Toolkit for Engaging with Department Store Buildings of the 1960s and 1970s

The primary motivation of this work stems from a fascination with buildings from the 1960s and 1970s – both for their physical presence within the urban fabric and as rational, pragmatically constructed large-scale structures. Representing nearly a third of Europe’s building stock, these structures form a late-modernist legacy that challenges our relationship with the existing built environment. Department stores stand out as particularly prototypical, being not only rationally organized in construction and typology but also embodying the capitalist ethos of democratized consumerism. In many ways, they can therefore be understood as materialized capitalism. Today, many of these buildings face the end of their first lifecycle, requiring renovation but often being at risk of demolition – a condition driven by economic systems that neglect ecological concerns. 

Can an architectural practice also mean to build less and foreground knowledge production to avoid ideologically and economically motivated demolition? Beyond preservation, we need strategies for documentation, analysis and evaluation to inform the design process. 

Through several case studies, this work considers the existing as a given precondition. By examining different layers of analysis and evaluation, the goal is to develop a methodical toolkit that reimagines buildings as anthropogenic storage, employs narration as a strategy for preservation, and analyzes architectural motifs and imagery. This multi-layered methodology seeks to heighten awareness of the latent values of the existing and encourage engagement with the building as an evolving entity rather than a static relic. It questions prevailing notions of architectural beauty, structural permanence, and authorship to inform transformation.

This dissertation project is being conducted within the TUM Innovation Network Collaborative Construction.
(dt. Bestand als Bedingung – Methodisches Toolkit zum Umgang mit Warenhausbauten der 1960er und 1970er Jahre)

Contact: Tobias Fink