Reúso y práctica patrimonial: Origen, significados y estrategias en el debate arquitectónico contemporáneo

The emergence of heritage discourse in contemporary architectural debate is recent, often driven by the search for opportunities for projects rather than by a concern for the conservation of heritage assets. Its evolution has run parallel to the drafting of heritage protection charters, which have extended this concept to increasingly broad spatial and cultural spheres, both tangible and intangible, with social links through collective memory. From the 1970s onwards, the energy crisis stimulated the practice of ‘reusing’ abandoned buildings, starting with industrial ones. This concept, explored by Giancarlo De Carlo and Lacaton and Vassal, among others, opened the door to an understanding of heritage integrated into architectural theory on the basis of the definition of cultural significance. While restoration refers to a specialised technical sector, adaptive reuse calls for a responsible professional practice committed to the heritage values intrinsic to all periods. This is the position defended by the TRAHERE Project, whose case study is post-industrial Madrid on the old terraces of the Manzanares River, through the exhibition ‘Entre río y raíles’ (CentroCentro, Madrid, 29/09/2022-15/01/2023).