A significant part of our built heritage from the latter half of the twentieth century, in particular the works of engineering and our infrastructure, offers a latent capacity for adaptation and transformation to meet current and future needs. This highlights the need to recognize, value and address aspects related to structural and constructive concepts, their potential and associated methods of adaptation. In the field of monument preservation, the challenges associated with the identification and maintenance of younger heritage assets such as system buildings, transport and energy infrastructure have recently given rise to a discourse on “transformation value”, with ETH Zurich at the forefront of the discussion. The discipline and its practitioners have a great deal of experience in the constant negotiation between preserving the historical, age-related and socio-cultural value of objects and the need to adapt them to changing or growing demands. However, recent and contemporary construction processes and the protection of related objects raise new issues and challenges, namely a conflict of interest between their protection and their further adaptation, an issue which needs to be addressed in the context of sustainability and resource efficiency, as we can neither afford to demolish nor abandon our buildings and infrastructure. Novel digital design and fabrication processes, the use of new and experimental “living” building materials, and the current focus on circular building reveal further potential and challenges. The high level of complexity in their design and manufacturing processes can make them more difficult to repair and maintain, an issue that is being addressed in the ongoing “Digital Construction Archive” research project at ETH Zurich. On the other hand, their “transformation value” may lie in a constant process of renewal, change of appearance and use. They can also offer new ways to maintain our existing built environment. These aspects call for further discussion in the field of monument preservation that in turn informs the production of a more durable and sustainable future building stock and infrastructure.