Adaptive Reuse

What is adaptive reuse?

Throughout the time of our existence on Earth, we acquire and possess our fair share of the surrounding world. We occupy a bit of land to live on, build a shelter, and call it a "private property" to ensure that nobody can trespass or take over, bring in a king-sized bed to rest your exhausted body, and operate a private automobile that brings us closer to our daily needs.

But can we claim our ownership of any of the stuff we say we possess? Not really.

We come to live in this world as guests rather than the owners of our physical constituents of the world. Think of this world as a conglomeration of Airbnb places, except you didn't get to choose where you stay. While some people continue to stay at a place that they occupied in the first place while some others try out different places to stay, what remains the same is that we all leave everything behind at one point. What makes the difference depends on using our limited time as wisely as possible. Believe it or not, the innate mechanism of our cities resembles this momentary nature of our lives. We build office buildings, retail stores, and other cool structures that take your breath away, but they are by no means everlasting. Any structures that constitute our contemporary urban spaces must come and go. Just like us.

Our built environment needs to be replaced at some point in its existence for many reasons. A building that used to function as a factory may lose its value due to the rapid decline of industry. A bridge that connected the tram rail may become obsolete as a result of the advent of automobiles.

This is why city experts like Jan Gehl call what appears to be a mere collection of lifeless structures a living entity. The impermanence of the city is overlooked due to its significantly longer lifespan than ours. But as the world continues to evolve, those worn-down walls and beams must be rebuilt and reprogrammed. There's a reason why we call our structural spaces an "environment".

This is where we apply our understanding of what's called adaptive reuse. As you may infer from the phrase itself, adaptive reuse is when you create a space out of the pre-existing structures that better suit our needs. What's important here is that it's not rejuvenating the original purpose of space. The practice of adaptive reuse doesn't stop at refurbishing the physical shape of the structure but also changes the way the space is used corresponding to the current needs of the society. So, repainting the house where multiple generations of your family lived is not part of adaptive reuse, but reviving the historic downtown restaurant place as office space for an architectural firm would be a great example.

Brief history

This construction technique emerged during the 1970s as people began to notice the scarcity of land and the need to conserve natural resources after the Modern Movement facilitated industrial production and cheap energy. The rising conservation and environmental movements pushed for the creation of policies that focus on sustainable development by transforming the existing structures into favorable spaces that meet the evolving needs of society. (Lanz & Pendlebury, 2022) This alternative approach was later phrased as adaptive reuse, and the rest became history.

Benefits: why’s

Now, why do our cities need to practice adaptive reuse in the first place? There are three major benefits that adaptive reuse brings to our cities:

Cultural value - The historical structures retain the depth of time and therefore, carry meaningful memories of local community members. (Gupta, 2023) The adaptive reuse strategies will ensure the heritage of our beloved places to linger on to preserve our stories through generations after generations.

Economic Advantage - The adaptive reuse strategies can provide affordable living spaces in the midst of a housing crisis by converting underutilized or vacant office spaces into residential spaces. A research study conducted in Hong Kong notes that the adaptive reuse of neglected industrial buildings into residential units can be considered a viable solution to the housing crisis in Hong Kong. (Tris, 2014) Furthermore, making use of the underutilized buildings will generate sufficient rental revenue and taxation that will revitalize the local region without sacrificing another scarce land to build another building that will eventually go obsolete in the future.

Environmental Benefits - The other name of adaptive reuse is sustainable development as it reduces the needed materials and greenhouse gas emissions generated during the process to the fullest extent. Another study finds that repurposing of the existing buildings carries numerous environmental implications, such as material recycling, landfill waste reduction, and significant energy saving. (Langston, 2008) What's interesting is that the author finds most of the older buildings implemented a thick, massive external envelope when constructed, which promotes passive heating and cooling design that delivers long-term operational benefits.

Author’s opinion

As noted above, our physical occupancy in this world is momentary. Our physical form may not persist indefinitely, but our stories must be sustained. Our limited lifespan is what makes everything we do in our lives meaningful. We express our desire to extend our existence by leaving our stories behind. Those footprints will be traced by our descendants, and we will continue to breathe through their efforts to make their lives worthwhile. And so do our cities. That is why adaptive reuse could be the key to helping us shape our world with untold stories of our cherished memories and remarkable accomplishments in the past.

Written By Taeyoung (Paul) Kim

Last Edited: December10th, 2024