Concept

Adaptive Reuse

Also Known As Building Reuse

Sustainable and Contemporary Practice

Giving an existing building a new life instead of demolishing it: power stations into museums, warehouses into housing, churches into libraries. It conserves embodied energy and urban memory at once, and projects like the Tate Modern in London's Bankside power station made it one of the defining architectural practices of the present.

Facts

Disputed

Formulated Year

1980 3

1980 is the earliest dated use of the exact phrase adaptive reuse this source lists, a Journal of Interior Design and Research case study; the underlying practice of giving old buildings new uses is far older and undated in this source.

Domain

Domain (category)

Historical / Preservation 1

Concept Domain

Contemporary practice 2

FAQs

Is adaptive reuse an architectural style?

No. Adaptive reuse is a practice of giving an existing building a new purpose rather than demolishing it; it is not a stylistic movement.

Adaptive reuse means giving an existing building a new life instead of demolishing it: a power station becoming a museum, a warehouse becoming housing, a church becoming a library. It conserves embodied energy and urban memory, and can be applied within any architectural style. Projects such as the Tate Modern in London's Bankside power station made it one of the defining architectural practices of the present, but the practice describes what happens to a building, not a visual or theoretical style it belongs to.

Connections