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INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER
INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER
Principles for Adaptive Reuse Projects
Reporting on a recent survey of architects which clarified the opportunites as well as challenges presnted by pursuing the increasingly popular sustainability route of adapting existing buildings for new uses
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daptive reuse schemes are likely to always be the most sustainable answer to a client’s requirement across many sectors. They also offer the opportunity to work with
existing architecture, whether ‘heritage’ or relatively modern, and conserve all materials which are worthy of reuse, instead of seeing them disappear into the waste stream.
Projects may upgrade the existing building fabric to bring a structure up to current and future performance standards on thermal and moisture criteria. At the same time, they can harness existing spatial characteristics of older buildings, such as from a former retail or industrial use, for a new use class such as residential.
Partly due to a series of constraints facing UK investment, and a shortage of viable sites alongside the benefits of reusing urban buildings which may have attachments to local communities, adaptive reuse is increasingly the route of choice. For clients such projects can be major mixed use opportunities that can act as keystones for local regeneration projects. But they can also see smaller schemes which were burdens turned into long-term assets. Adaptive reuse also gives architects the ability to celebrate the original building by adding new design interventions which can blend with or offer juxtapositions that enhance the original building, so it is seen in a new light, potentially revealing historic details. A high proportion of respondents said they were adding a significant amount of new build (70%-80%) to the existing building in projects they have undertaken. This can offer inspiration for designers, while requiring design flexibility in the project team, which is one of a distinct set of challenges. We conducted a survey to discover architects’ views on both these factors and the considerable benefits for designers, the majority of respondents having had experience of working on adaptive reuse projects. The results present an interesting snapshot of designers’ views on the merits of the concept, as well as successful approaches, and their remaining challenges. Most respondents (84%) backed a presumption in favour of
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adaptive reuse over demolition, agreeing that “architects should look to adaptive reuse as the first option for projects where there is an existing building, rather than a presumption for demolition and new build.”
The opportunity of adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse can be more economically viable than a demolish and rebuild solution, while the environmental sustainability
“Should architects look to adaptive reuse as the first option for all projects where there is an existing building on the site, rather than a presumption for demolition and new build?”
ADF OCTOBER 2024
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