Architectural symbols of hate: redemption through adaptive reuse
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Throughout the tainted history of our modern world, architecture remains its most concrete form of memory. Architectural ruins and remnants of distinct moments of fascist and dictatorship regimes, with a focus on the Nazi National Socialist party, stand as both offensive personifications of hate while also being the object that represent a local and sociocultural identity. Through the understanding of the anthropology of undesired buildings as well as the theory of collective memory, the methods and strategies to properly adaptively reuse these existing buildings can breathe new life into the architecture and place an important reminder of its past. The adaptive reuse of the House of the Wannsee Conference into the Beth Wannsee Synagogue can answer the questions of (a) how can a building embedded with the memories of hate be repurposed into a beneficial site?; (b) what functional typology can be housed in this site?; (c) and who do we reuse these site for?