The Multitude of Adaptive Reuse Solutions in Sustainable Revitalization of Historic Post-military Complexes

Abstract

The preservation of historic barrack complexes is crucial to the narrative of the cultural landscape in historic garrison towns. However due to ever-changing warfare most of them are obsolete. After decommissioning these complexes pose a liability to the local authorities who try to dispose of them even at the price of putting them up for tender one building at a time. However, the value of military complexes is mostly in the typology: the standardization and the repeatable urban plan of barrack complexes – which at first glance identify a military complex. Partitioning distorts these features, rendering historic barracks useless as historic monuments and the bearers of local tradition. Luckily, barrack complexes can be revitalized in many ways. The article ponders upon some of the solutions and their suitability judged from the point of view of their legibility in the eyes of the viewers.