In a recent conversation with Architecture Review, Karl Steiner discusses the practice's growing focus on existing buildings and the architectural possibilities contained within them.

For Steiner, working with an existing structure begins before any design decision is made. The first task is to understand the building as an accumulation of decisions, adaptations, materials, and traces of use.

“An existing building is never neutral,” Steiner explains. “It already has a relationship with its surroundings, its users, and its own history.”

The practice's recent projects demonstrate this approach through restrained interventions rather than complete transformations. Structural elements are retained where possible, existing materials are exposed, and new additions are deliberately legible without becoming visually dominant.

The conversation also addresses the environmental implications of working with existing structures. Reuse is not treated simply as a technical strategy, but as an opportunity to reconsider what architecture considers valuable.

Rather than beginning with a blank surface, the architect begins with conditions.

This shift changes the role of design. Architecture becomes less about introducing an object and more about editing, revealing, connecting, and sometimes removing.

For Stirner, this is not a nostalgic approach to architecture.

“The question isn't how little we can change. It is what actually needs to change.”

The full interview explores the practice's position on adaptive reuse, material permanence, and the relationship between architecture and time.