Architecture and Ruins

I love the idea of rebuilt architecture that both incorporates and inhibits decay, without removing it. That sounds weird, and it isn't cheap, but look at these project that didn't tear down what was there, but built on it (more others from Architize here).

I love the idea that rather than tearing down the old, it should be repurposed, and restored. The decay and aging frozen in time and repurposed. I suppose, in some Freudian way, it is a desire to beat death. But I look at it more as saving something important from being lost.

THE WHITE HOUSE by WT Architects, Isle of Coll, United Kingdom

The clients inherited the lime-built walls of this 18th-century house and were perswt aruaded to incorporate their new home with the walls of the ruins, instead of restoring the old or building new. The original walls were stabilized and consolidated, while still maintaining their characteristic cracks. New stone walls extrapolated on existing boundary walls, reusing materials found on site. Half of the walls of the old house remain as uncovered ruins, only now serving a dual purpose: a tribute to the original ‘ruined’ character of the site and an enclosure for a new courtyard garden.