Check out this BBC video on How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand
He introduced the concept of “shearing layers of change”- that different parts of buildings age at different rates, causing buildings to constantly change and evolve. There are six “S”s- site, which is eternal; Structure, which can last hundreds of years; skin, perhaps 20 (although brick is pretty eternal) Services, the electrical and mechanical, 7 to 15, space plan, the interior layout in commercial space can be as little as 3 years; and stuff, the crap we bring in, “things that twitch around monthly.”
