Architecture is a frozen history and we are compelled to live in it. A building is meant to last for years, decades, centuries, and even millennia. However, (to last’ is only a relative term. In reality, a building is a process instead of a product. Over time it becomes obsolete, inappropriate, difficult to use, and a burden to maintain, does not meet new needs and regulations, and even falls out of fashion. So it is obvious that it must be under constant pressure to be changed. A whole set of activities is to be recognized: simple maintenance work, refurbishment, reconstruction, modernization, adaptation, addition, and in the end, unavoidable demolition and removal. The changes in the built environment, in architecture and – to limit the scope of the discussion – in housing, are caused and stimulated by past events at several levels: anthropological, historical, technological, cultural and architectural. The only constant is man, speaking in a more or less biological sense and within the framework of a time span that we can comprehend. The basic needs for food, shelter, safety, reproduction, caring for offspring, and cultural continuity remain essential regardless of time and space. However, even regarding this, things do change at least formally: the hunt has become sport, collecting food in the forest has been replaced by shopping, and telling stories has today been replaced by TV. Some other changes in the dwelling culture are well known: the separation of home and work, the size and kind of family, different patterns, and the attitude to privacy. Several new design methods have been invented to make anticipated future changes and adaptation possible: the flexible layout, modular coordination, the support and infill system, and so on. Recently, new doctrines have been introduced: allowing building parts to be changed or replaced independently, separating structural elements from the building envelope and technical equipment, and introducing new materials not traditionally used in building. The recent state of the art is to build temporary and even recyclable buildings. This paper presents several examples of these issues closely related to the regional (central European) tradition based on the author’s personal experience and limited to the time span of the last hundred years. This paper presents several examples of these issues closely related to the regional (central European) tradition based on the author’s personal experience and limited to the time span of the last hundred years.
