For most of history, reusing existing buildings has been, first and foremost, a matter of common sense and good economics, yet we can presume buildings held community or personal value, as well. Since buildings are the vessels that frame moments in human lives, it makes sense they would hold intangible forms of value for those who spend time in and around them. Historic and older buildings are the physical embodiment of our past, and their accumulation of age and patina is a process we relate to as human beings. This course challenges students to critically understand the narrative of what happens to buildings after they’re built and how different cultures have adapted or preserved their buildings. Through a spatial and global lens, the course introduces preservation, conservation and reuse as a diverse, global, cultural construct. It investigates the concept of how and why buildings are preserved or reused through examining the idea of significance, memory, culture and materiality. It explores how the modernization of preservation and conservation, along with idea of a formal perception of value and significance, emerged from the codification of preservation in the 19th and ...