After WW1 and WW2, many European churches were destroyed beyond repair, or respective parishes saw themselves incapable of re-building them in a foreseeable future. In Germany, this has lead to a creation of Notkirchen, or Misery Churches, replacement buildings as a veritable typology with quite some engineering and artistic value. Barting may be named as a master of such, but there were others as well.
Are there any comparisons in that field internationally: replacement buildings that gained value out of the poor state they were built in?
I can't find any examples, but I wonder if you could somehow link/compare that to temporary architecture which gained a historical/aesthetic/iconic value when it somehow got preserved (I'm thinking about International Exposition halls and such notably in France, but the materials were maybe too good to compare?). I will keep that in mind though and try to find more suitable examples.
The examples you seem to have in mind are many and reknown, with the Eiffel tower the most exponent case. First, a temporary venue, then, a don't-worry-we'll-soon-demolish-it case, finally, an icon. There are other exhibition pieces that were relocated and re-used, like the Centennial hall in Duisburg, etc.: first, an exhibition hall, then, a smithy,. now, a concert hall. However, they all worked, throughout their respective life span, and worked well, this was the reason for their preservation. They lack a moral improvement part I had in mind, like an aching scar that keeps one thinking of the mishap or misdeed that it originated from - here, a church-goers was ever remindered of a stately old church, etc. p.p. Many turned cradles of 1970s peace movements. Berlin's Gedächtniskirche can be seen as such piece, to, although noone called it a Notkirche. Hiroshima's Nuclear House may be a close match, yet it doesn't "work", it acts by its mere presence.
I can hardly believe this German experience was unique in the history of architecture.
Your answer makes it clearer, but at the same time, harder to find exact matching examples. Did you have a look at emergency architecture after natural disasters (and not war?) it would still be a scar, but in a different way. Although I don't have examples in mind, and I doubt they reached the level you are thinking of.
Sure thing, shelter houses, like Ban builds out of paper and tents, etc., were one of my first ideas. They even come with a more permanent version, like Frei Otto's tents, his Stuttgart institute, or Munich stadium, or Montreal Expo pavilion - yet there is only a typological/technological match, not even a location that to share...
some trends i have noticed here in USA is clever re-use of dilapidated facility building type as new function.
1900's example: turn of last century main street USA banks are being turned into bars slash dance clubs. teller stations are now drink stations and vault doors are entry to dance floor.
1920's example: many depression era stone churches two generations later lost congregation members to a point that they ceased to assemble or maintain facility. buildings all across east coast are now being converted into high end high density condominiums each with custom amenities.
1960-70's example: middle and high schools in north america are government subsidized on 20-25 cycle. so many facilities now two cycles old are being abandoned in favor of new facilities. many of these are being re-zoned to allow commercialization and renovated as industrial park office space with varying success.
1990's example: abandoned big box stores in strip malls are often being returned to full use as low maintenance sports facilities such as: indoor electric go cart driving tracks, rock wall climbing gyms, trampoline tumbling parks, etc.
have a feeling this may not be sort of suggestions you are looking for though.
Thanks for responding, Matthew, but that is really not quite what I was looking for.
A mainstreet bank office of yours was surely built to all the grandeur of the time, and a shopping arcade too (S.I.T.E.´s BEST supermarkets excluded).
To use your example, a bank I´d belooking for would be once a palace of Guilded Age, than a wreck of Recession (a real one, with walls falling down), and then resurrect as a prefab container arrangement of a Credit Union that the victims of that past bank collapse established. Then, after some decades, these containers would turn into an icon for both the Union members and the community, a sign of true virtue that overcame. You see?
Or, if we were to return to churches: take a pre-WW1 palatial church, neo-gothick maybe. Destroy it during WW1 or WW2. Replace it with a shack. Gain value from its shack-ness, from a continuous loss, and morale improvement from self-imposed humbleness.
Coventry cathedral almost does it, it is inferior less to a predecessor - yet did it establish a tradition of any sort?
perhaps this is closer to the esoteric benefits you are looking for: in my home state there are dozens of projects like this one where old steel mills are being reborne: http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/189135/37/Two-Communities-Two-Fates-For-Former-Bethlehem-Steel-Sites
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