Degrees of Adaptability

Abstract

Context: The majority of buildings are designed as static objects, in order to serve a specific goal, a specific function. Although, this does not match to the contemporary and constantly changing way of living and working. Moreover, it does not match with the evolving technology, economy and culture. Thus, buildings that cannot respond to the changing demand can easily get obsolete by being outdated, inefficient, unable to be reformed accordingly. Buildings’ obsolescence and vacancy is a quite common problem globally, that creates a lot of externalities in the built environment and in the quality of the daily life. A way to phase it, is be transforming the existing obsolete building stock to dynamic real estate objects that can adjust to the current and future demand. Thus, to enhance their future-proofness. This can happen by enabling design strategies which have the capacity to create adaptable transformation project. The aim of this research is to generate a framework that can be used in order to support the decision making and designing process of adaptability in real estate transformation projects.

Problem Statement: The main problem to be confronted is the real estate obsolescence as a result of buildings’ inefficiency. Usually the functional life-cycle of an asset is smaller that the structural and/or technical. Thus, when the building is not able to adjust to the changing demand it becomes obsolete, a situation that can create a variety of other problems. The research is focused on transformation projects.
Methodology: The research aims at defining a solution for the problem and provide a practical tool to support this decision. So, as the objectives are hybrid the same happens with the methodology, Main pillars are the literature study and the empirical research, which consists of the Delphi research method and semi-structured interviews. These work as the backbones of the research while in the second part design and analytical tools, like SWOT and scenario planning, are used to illustrate the implementation of the proposed solution.
Results: After the conduction of the empirical and scientific research a design framework was developed based on the analyzed data. The framework consists of three degrees of adaptability which are additive to each other and can endorse specific type of accommodation supply alternatives. The way that the framework should be implemented and the steps for decision making are described via a set of tools and illustrations. Conclusions: The author proposes a design framework for adaptable transformation projects. This can be adjusted and used based on each project’s demands in order to offer a balanced outcome for a future proof building. Although the framework was developed for transformation projects of a specific typology, its general principles can be implemented into all the buildings, transformation or not. The final outcome is a result of deep understanding on the values and aspects of adaptability with respect to each projects uniqueness.
Keywords: obsolete buildings, adaptability, transformations, future-proof, design framework