Adaptive reuse can help accelerate the transition of the built environment to circularity, as a process of building modification with sustainability central to its design principles.
Adaptive reuse of buildings is the sustainable process of converting an existing structure, often unused or heritage buildings, to a new form with more appropriate contemporary functions and facilities.
The process of addressing building obsolescence has been ongoing for many years. However, it is only recently that authorities have begun to focus on developing relevant policies, standards, and protocols to standardise this process.
As a construction approach, adaptive reuse conserves resources and energy, reduces carbon emissions, preserves cultural heritage, and saves time and money compared to new construction.
From a broader perspective, it also has the potentialto avoid premature demolition, extend the useful life of buildings, and play a decisive role in climate protection.
Last year, researchers from the Universities of South Australia and New South Wales published a literature review examining the current state of research on adaptive reuse as a means to accelerate the circular economy.
They explained that circular economy principles offered many advantages for optimising adaptive reuse projects, and the scarcity of primary resources and increasing wastage and carbon footprints had challenged builders and developers to adopt the principles in the design and management of the built environment.
The researchers said: “Various pathways and strategies are being implemented, including recycling building materials, passive and active design strategies through low-carbon retrofitting, waste reduction, design for adaptability, and disassembly.
“While new construction developments can significantly achieve resource efficiency through new designs and technologies, the existing building stock faces several issues in achieving circularity.
“Adaptive reuse is a significant initiative in favour of the application of circular economy in the existing building stock.”
The term adaptive reuse is broad and often vaguely defined, but the core element of extending lifespan over time is indicated in the definition: “a building’s ability to successfully fit the shifting demands of its setting, maximising value through time”.
This directly relates to the core circular economy principle of adaptability, offering circular designs that expand a building’s lifespan through the flexible and efficient use of resources.
However, the researchers cautioned that the alignment of adaptive reuse and circular economy was still a new and emerging topic, and many policies did not identify the synergies between the two concepts to maximise the benefits.
Sustainability-focused Australian design firm Cox Architecture explained that adaptive reuse projects often anchored themselves within urban centres, revitalising neighbourhoods and creating hubs of activity and connection.
Cox said: “Repurposing buildings dramatically reduces waste and embodied carbon compared to demolishing and rebuilding – it’s a practice that benefits both the planet and the local community.
“These projects don’t just create beautiful spaces; they create meaningful change, providing jobs during construction, reinvigorating neighbourhoods, and delivering [buildings] designed to last for decades.
“By prioritising eco-friendly upgrades and future-proofing buildings, adaptive reuse ensures these spaces will stand the test of time.”
An important element of adaptive reuse is its heritage conservation, the aim of which is to ensure the cultural significance of heritage buildings is maintained and valued over time.
The adaptive reuse of architectural heritage aims to achieve a balance between the conservation of buildings and the need to meet contemporary demands, such as spatial, economic, and environmental.
The Office of the Victorian Government Architect (OVGA) explained that while changes may be necessary to adapt heritage buildings to new uses, it was crucial to ensure these changes did not compromise the heritage significance of the place or its fabric.
The OVGA said: “Contemporary architecture and innovative design are an important part of the contextual approach to heritage fabric because it adds to the existing diversity and layering of architectural styles through time.
“Good design in a historic context links the past to the present and projects into the future by demonstrating an understanding [of] – and responding to – the context of a place.
“The design response should respect important relationships between the building, its neighbours, and its setting, and may also create new ones.”
Another paper published in the Sustainability journal earlier this year reviewed the literature on the adaptive reuse of buildings, aiming to develop a framework that outlines how repurposing practices contribute to specific sustainable development goals and their targets.
The findings showed that repurposing projects made direct contributions to nine sustainable development goals, with the strongest impacts identified concerning goals 4, 11, and 17.
In the context of goal four, repurposing projects demonstrated how existing architecture could function as an asset that benefited urban sustainability, while for goal 11, the importance of inclusivity in decision making throughout various stages of adaptive reuse and its protection of unique architectural features was a strategy that enhanced social capital and provided cultural and economic improvements.
Adaptive reuse also supported goal 17 by fostering public-private partnerships and encouraging transparent policy communication, which aided the development of new policies focused on sustainability.
A significant ongoing adaptive reuse project is the revitalisation of the past Forestry Tasmania headquarters in Hobart, which will convert the building into an academic facility for the University of Tasmania.
Consisting of warehouse space and a dome designed around two existing 1930s structures by University of Tasmania Professor Robert Morris-Nunn in 1997, the building has been listed on Tasmania’s state heritage register for more than three decades.
Woods Bagot is working closely with Morris-Nunn on restoring his design, which he described as a wonderful development for the community.
Morris-Nunn added: “Seeing the building fall into disuse over the last few years has been sad, so to know that the university is planning to restore it, and even reinstate the forest under the dome, is amazing news.”
The space will eventually house the university’s faculty of law, business, and economics and become the anchor for the university’s campus transition into Hobart’s central business district.
The university said in a statement: “We are creating a very sustainable and beautiful building by retrofitting an existing space with a low-carbon and circular design that makes extensive use of timber.
“The design celebrates Hobart’s architectural heritage, scale, and character, [and] will provide great contemporary learning spaces for students.”
