altering architecture: the necessity of analyzing the interventional design in order to reach the continuity of life in existing buildings

each attempts regarding using conservation and preservation instead of mere restoration were a way toward explaining the new values in restoring buildings, cultural heritage, and considering the architectural concepts instead of exclusive attention to formal characteristics and styles. in all existing buildings which their lifetime have been ended or are used for an inappropriate function, such preservation that applies to museums, for instance, does not work or at least is not reasonable. on the other hand, various approaches, from ecological sustainability to cultural sustainability, consider demolition as the final choice. they allow demolition when there are not other possibilities available. this paper reviews related ideas and theories to the subject. in the following, it presents certain and well-known examples of the modern architecture which resisted the alteration and, because of this, their life faced serious risks. finally, with a review of the characteristics of a project by carlo scarpa, as a concrete example of altering architecture, this paper tries to investigate and revel delete that how changes, each of which could have been regarded a careless intervention, in practice brought the continuity of life to a building. several studies show that, nowadays, almost half of the constructions around the world are related to the existing buildings. so long as a building is going to keep up its contemporary life, it should inevitably undergo continuous changes. therefore, the study of ‘altering architecture’, as a new field in architecture and especially interior architecture, seems indispensable.