In a time of climate crisis and housing shortages, a bold, visionary call to replace current wasteful construction practices with an architecture of reuse

As climate change has escalated into a crisis, the reuse of existing structures is the only way to even begin to preserve our wood, sand, silicon, and iron, let alone stop belching carbon monoxide into the air. Our housing crisis means that we need usable buildings now more than ever, but architect and critic Aaron Betsky shows that new construction—often seeking to maximize profits rather than resources, often soulless in its feel—is not the answer. Whenever possible, it is better to repair, recycle, renovate, and reuse—not only from an environmental perspective, but culturally and artistically as well.

Architectural reuse is as old as civilization itself. In the streets of Europe, you can find fragments from the Roman Empire. More recently, marginalized communities from New York to Detroit—queer people looking for places to gather or cruise, punks looking to make loud music, artists and displaced people looking for space to work and live—have taken over industrial spaces created then abandoned by capitalism, forging a unique style in the process. Their methods—from urban mining to dumpster diving—now inform architects transforming old structures today.

Betsky shows us contemporary imaginative reuse throughout the world: the Mexican housing authority transforming concrete slums into well-serviced apartments; the MassMOCA museum, built out of old textile mills; the squatted city of Christiana in Copenhagen, fashioned from an old army base; Project Heidelberg in Detroit. All point towards a new circular economy of reuse, built from the ashes of the capitalist economy of consumption.

Aaron Betsky is a professor in the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech. A critic of art, architecture, and design, Mr. Betsky is the author of over 20 books on those subjects. He writes a twice-weekly blog, Beyond Buildings, for Architect Magazine. Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale, Mr. Betsky has served as the Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Netherlands Architecture Institute, as well as curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art .

“Nothing is as ecologically sound as reusing the things we’ve already built—and as this book makes clear, nothing is as beautiful either!”
—Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

“In Don’t Build, Rebuild, architect and critic Aaron Betsky offers an essential alternative to the wasteful paradigm of conventional construction. Drawing on his wealth of personal experience with innovative projects around the world, Betsky presents a vision grounded in the ‘imaginative reuse’ of our existing built environment. Through rich historical analysis and inspiring contemporary examples—from repurposed wind turbine blades to transformed swim clubs and train depots—he calls for architects to become urban miners, harvesting the hidden value in our cities’ discarded treasures. This thought-provoking and important book is a must-read, urging readers to embrace a more sustainable, circular approach to architecture and design.”
—Stefan Al, author of Supertall: How the World’s Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives

“This fantastic book extends beyond the usual parameters of reuse, incorporating powerful insights and tactics from such things as installation art, squatting, and digital simulation. Don’t Build, Rebuild is a rousing call for the decommodified and decarbonized built environment that we so desperately need.”
—Matthew Soules, author of Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century

“Most proposals for mitigating climate change are ‘too little, too late.’ Aaron Betsky has the courage to say ‘stop building NOW.’ Instead, he argues, we need to make better use of existing structures, and he takes us around the world to see the many ways repurposed buildings can be beautiful, egalitarian, and just.”
—Fred A. Bernstein, architecture critic