Sociocultural Impacts of Immediacy-Driven Renovation and an Experientially Grounded Renovation as an Alternative

Architecture is never static; it can embody layered meanings and memory that evolve with time, context and users. As cities are growing and the buildable land is decreasing, architecture faces the challenge of intervening pre-existing buildings. A current trend in architectural renovation reflects an immediatism approach, where the emphasis is placed on the building as a product and its visual appealing and media-oriented design. While renovation has economic and environmental implications, this paper focuses on its sociocultural impacts, as it directly influences inhabitants’ quality of life and their sense of belonging. The aim of this study is to determine how an Immediacy-Driven Renovation can generate negative social impacts, and how theoretical frameworks support an Experientially Grounded Renovation as a meaningful alternative. This study analyzes the influence of renovation addressed from an experiential understanding of architecture. The result of the study is the development of a pedagogic and methodological tool for analyzing future renovation cases. The expected outcome are two tables: ‘Immediate and Experiential Renovation Approaches’ and ‘Matrix of Renovation Throughout Project Phases’, both summarize the factors that characterized each of the approaches, enabling the identification of the experiential and cultural impacts of renovation on society.