My thesis proposes that understanding existing ordinary buildings as perpetually unfinished assemblages could allow us to view reuse as a continuous process rather than a last-ditch transformation of an already degraded shell. Our misconception of architecture as static and incapable of change risks exacerbating the impact of the building industry on climate emissions through unnecessary demolition and reconstruction, yet buildings continue to change far beyond their initial construction. Using my family home as a case study, an evolving process of representation considered how the practices of drawing and photography that currently reinforce a view of buildings as immutable could be reoriented to challenge this perception instead.

This ongoing process and accompanying research developed into a theory of ‘more-than-maintenance,’ a way of seizing the failures of the everyday as opportunities for small acts of repair that take care of the existing structure without perpetuating the status quo. The practice was tested in a series of animated interventions to the house and then exposed to the contingencies of the real world in a public installation.