Counterintuitive 
Typologies

Fig. 1. Design as a Method of Inquiry: From Commercial Real-Estate Type to Peripheral Monument—Testing the Civic Potential of Transformation and Reuse

Fig. 2. CBT: Matrix with different transformation scenarios for existing strip malls in Austria.

Fig. 3. This research examines how low-status, car-oriented, and frequently monofunctional structures can be read typologically and transformed into more adaptable, socially productive, and environmentally responsible forms of architecture. Rather than dismissing these strip-like agglomerations as contingent accumulations or obsolete structures awaiting demolition, it approaches them as repositories of spatial, structural, and material intelligence whose latent capacities can be reactivated through design.

Can the transformation of commercial and strip-mall typologies become a means of identifying and developing new elements of civic architecture within the ordinary fabric of the contemporary periphery? Existing commercial and infrastructural types are reconsidered as frameworks for new forms of collective use, including light industry, laboratories, offices, production, and other shared programmes. Their spatial, typological, and programmatic capacities are diversified through strategies of retrofit, modification, extension, and localised replacement, while existing material, infrastructural, and ecological resources are retained and strengthened.

The research project Counterintuitive Building Types (CBT) examined commercial and retail properties built on greenfield sites and organised primarily around car access. Rather than treating these structures as obsolete, the project considered their buildings, envelopes, land, and infrastructure as resources for continued transformation. It developed scenarios ranging from continued use and retrofit to more extensive forms of adaptation for community facilities, logistics, sport, leisure, work, and experimental residential occupation.

These scenarios were assessed in collaboration with specialists in structural engineering, building physics, life-cycle assessment, economics, and real-estate practice. Spatial quality and potential uses were evaluated alongside energy demand, material expenditure, environmental impact, and cost, with the assumptions underlying these assessments made explicit. The project therefore addressed both what existing buildings make possible and what material, technical, economic, and regulatory conditions would be required to realise those possibilities.

A follow-up research project, CBT-NEXT, has since been submitted to the FFG’s TIKS programme with support from TU Graz seed funding. It extends this work toward a more systematic transformation toolkit for existing commercial building stock. The three-year CBT-research project selected commercial and retail properties to provide empirical foundation as existing structures and resources for case studies that convert and further develop them towards more positive energy, use, and life cycle balances. “Placemaking” transforms the underperforming properties into more active and attractive places of higher experiential density and environmental relevance through multiplication of spaces and uses in the interior and exterior areas, demonstrating opportunities for more sustainable development of these understudied building typologies.

Andreas Lechner (PI)

Project Partner

CBT is funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG
· Project Number #4425025 · ︎︎︎ Final Report (German)