Reusing for tomorrow

Abstract

Adaptive reuse of buildings is a sustainable practice implemented worldwide to cope with changing user requirements. It is a resource-efficient building intervention that can promote circularity in the built environment by reusing building assets and extending their longevity. As a type of building alteration, adaptive reuse needs to facilitate future changes by adopting principles of building adaptability: the ability to modify or adjust the configuration and composition of buildings to meet changing needs over time. This involves flexible design, modular construction, or innovative use of materials. While the benefits of future-proof circular adaptive reuse are acknowledged, its implementation remains challenging due to a lack of knowledge and other practical obstacles. The combination of circularity and adaptability in adaptive reuse projects requires a collaborative development process that aligns diverse demands. Drawing from the authors’ theoretical and empirical studies, this chapter outlines the essential design prerequisites – key foundational conditions – for circular and adaptable building reuse as an emerging practice in the built environment. This chapter stems from synthesizing these insights into actionable prerequisites that support circular and adaptable reuse design. These prerequisites comprise asset inventory; iterative and interdisciplinary co-design, knowledge acquisition and dissemination; and adoption of an approach to requirements alignment.