[+] 12 of the World’s Most Inspired Adaptive Reuse Projects

Across the globe, adaptive reuse has become one of the dominant forms of architecture and construction. Developers and asset owners are increasingly looking to capture the upside of savings in time, money and carbon. While Australia has many world-leading and award-winning examples of the practice—including 3XN Architects’ multi-award-winning Quay Quarter Tower and Substation No. 146 and Shelley’s Warehouse on Clarence Street in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, overseas examples of recent years underline how inspired, inventive and thoughtful this method of architecture and construction has become. Here are 12 of the best from around the world. Pumphouse Location: Winnipeg, Canada Architecture: 5468796 Architecture Completed: 2024 A mixed-use redevelopment on former railway lands, Pumphouse came about after 17 failed attempts to revive the James Avenue Pumping Station within Winnipeg’s Exchange District National Historic Site. Two interventions made the project viable—leveraging the capacity of the original gantry crane to suspend a floating floor above the pump hall machinery, enabling the brick building to be repurposed as an office and a restaurant; and a zoning amendment allowed for a five-storey residential building on a 12m sliver of land between the heritage building and the street, reinstating the original industrial streetscape and adding financial feasibility with another apartment on the opposite end. 27 Eccleston Place Location: London, UK Architect: Buckley Gray Yeoman Completed: 2023 The renovation of a former ice factory has created workspace, retail and two new restaurants over five floors as the second and final stage of the Eccleston Yards masterplan. The facade’s original cast iron beams and columns that face Eccleston Yards were retained, with the riveted ironwork repainted in a red oxide paint while the existing arched openings were restored to provide entrances to the retail space and office space. Two additional storeys are clad in brick with a subtle tonal difference marking the distinction between old and new and a restaurant has been created on the fourth floor, with full-height glazing and two terraces looking out over surrounding rooftops and the open space of Eccleston Yards. ArtIstanbul Feshane Location: Istanbul, Turkey Architect: KG Mimarlik - İBB Miras Completed: 2023 Built in 1836 during the reign of Sultan Mahmut II in the Ottoman Empire, Feshane-i Amire was a fez production factory, one of the most important institutions that undertook the economic and socio-cultural transformation of the imperial capital. Feshane was the first prefabricated steel construction textile production facility of the empire—its cast columns were brought from Belgium in 1851. A fire in 1865 destroyed the building but it was rebuilt the next year. Between 2022 and 2023 it was repurposed and reintroduced to the city ’ s cultural and artistic life as a gallery. The 8000sq m structure is a single-storey masonry building designed to allow natural light through a steel and glass covering. Amenities such as exhibition areas, a library, a shop, a seminar hall, a cafe, security facilities, wet areas, ticket sales and technical areas have been integrated into the renovated building. Grand Granary Bookstore of Libraire Avant-Garde Location: Jiangmen, China Architect: SEU-ARCH, Art+Zen Architects Completed: 2024 This group of abandoned granaries is in Tangkou Town, Kaiping City, home to the World Cultural Heritage Diaolou Group, Guangdong Province. The granaries’ roofs were repaired using original methods and a long gallery built on the west side of the five granaries to connect the spaces. During the renovation process, special symbols and scenes with collective memory of this village were preserved, and the exterior walls of the granaries were repainted using original materials and technology. The cafe was newly built on the site of the demolished three-storey dormitory. A glass box nearly 8m tall was designed to enhance the openness of the space. The 72m gallery serves as a cultural and creative sales area, and can also be used as an art exhibition space. The bookstore has become a public living room for the villagers, activating the public village square neighbouring the building. Boobam Store Location: São Paulo, Brazil Architect: Felipe Hess Arquitetos Completed: 2022 Founded in 2016 as an online retailer of art and design by Brazilian artists, the trio behind the brand stepped up operations by opening a brick-and-mortar store in a former mechanical workshop in the uber-cool Vila Madalena section of the Pinheiros neighbourhood, São Paulo. The building offers 550sq m of space and features an interior design that has retained most of the original configuration and look. A recessed front yard and entrance, with a gazebo and a band of plants, funnel visitors into the elongated retail space. Inside, the building’s neutral architecture and interior serve as a background to the variety of products of different colours, functions, and dimensions, while exposed infrastructures, such as roof trussing, highlight the materiality and texture of the old structure and new interventions. University of Auckland B201 Building Location: Auckland, New Zealand Architect: Jasmax Completed: 2023 This project has transformed a 50-year-old building that had reached end-of-life and was slated for demolition into a 24,500sq m academic environment. Through innovative carbon reduction strategies, including reuse of the entire concrete structure, a high-performing replacement facade and use of low-carbon materials, B201 emits half the embodied carbon and requires only a third the average energy of an equivalent new development. It holds the highest Green Star design rating awarded in New Zealand. Repurposing also reduced the length of construction by a year, accruing cost savings of 25 per cent compared to replacement. The design also celebrates the site’s significant history and has been enriched by the gift of cultural taonga (treasures) by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the local iwi (Māori tribe), who provided 1214ha of land for the establishment of Auckland City in 1840. Traditional tukutuku (lattice panel) designs, including the zigzagging ara moana and diamond-shaped pātiki (flounder) patterns, are reinterpreted at the scale of major architectural features in honour of the legacy of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Shenzhen Women &amp; Children’s Centre Location: Shenzhen, China Architect: MVRDV Completed: 2023 The centre transformed a mixed-use tower into a vibrant and colourful skyscraper hosting a hotel and a wide range of facilities for the welfare of women and children, including a library, auditorium, children’s theatre and “discovery hall”, as well as therapy rooms and offices for staff. The tower was completed in 1994, forming part of Shenzhen’s first period of explosive growth but due to persistent fire safety concerns the tower remained empty. Under China’s commitment to achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, the building was selected as one of 24 for revitalisation by the National Development and Reform Commission. The most visible element of MVRDV’s transformation is the facade: a grid of multi-coloured exterior frames increases the depth of the facade to a full metre. These frames provide extra shading to reduce thermal heat gain and incorporate openable panels on the inside that allow for natural ventilation, reducing the building’s reliance on air-conditioning. Domino Sugar Refinery Location: Brooklyn, US Architect: PAU (Practice for Architecture and Urbanism) Completed: 2023 The mixed-use development created in the former sugar refinery along the East River sits on a 4.5ha site that includes 19,000sq m of community and commercial space; 56,000sq m of office space; 2800 apartments, of which 700 are affordable; and 2.4ha of parkland. The complex will eventually contain five residential buildings and cost $US3 billion. Seen as the masterplan’s crown jewel, the refinery building was built in 1882 to consolidate three functions inside three joined buildings—the filtering, panning, and finishing of sugar. It now offers 39500sq m of office space. Among innovations employed in the project, PAU nested a new building into the existing envelope with a 3.6m gap between the new and the old rather than navigating misaligned floors and window sills across the combined masonry shell. Tai Kwun Location: Hong Kong, China Architect: Herzog &amp; de Meuron, Purcell Completed: 2018 The walled compound established by the British in 1841—comprising the former Central Police Station, the Central Magistracy and the Victoria Prison—was decommissioned in 2006 and has transformed into mix of residential buildings and parks, the latter centred around two courtyards: the Parade Ground and the Prison Yard. Herzog &amp; de Meuron’s design retains the original high prison wall on three sides of the site while reworking the original gates and adding an elevated walkway to provide five entrances. Two new buildings bookend the former prison yard, one houses a 200-seat auditorium with a staircase below it doubling as an amphitheatre, and the other is the Tai Kwun Contemporary, a 1480sq m art space. The theme of Hong Kong arts and crafts runs throughout the precinct with retail spaces representing local fine arts, craftsmanship, and architecture; a 740sq m Cantonese restaurant; and Behind Bars, a cocktail bar in the former prison courtyard. Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa Location: Cape Town, South Africa Architect: Heatherwick Studio Completed: 2017 Described as the world’s largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, the museum is a 9500sq m space spread over nine floors created from the monumental structure of the historic Grain Silo Complex. The silos, disused since 1990, were once the tallest building in South Africa. The silos’ cellular structure of 42 tubes have been carved out for a new life as the galleries and atrium space at the centre of the museum, which comprises 6000sq m of exhibition space in 80 galleries, a rooftop sculpture garden, storage and conservation areas, bookshop, restaurant, bar, and reading rooms. The R500 million ($A42 million) development is at the heart of one of most visited cultural and historical hubs in Africa, the V&amp;A Waterfront, attracting up to 100,000 people a day. Gabriela Mistral Cultural Centre Location: Santiago, Chile Architect: Cristián Fernández Arquitectos Completed: 2008 The complex was originally built to serve as the headquarters for the third UNCTAD conference, held in Santiago in 1972, and consisted of a convention centre and an adjoining 22-storey building. Built in only 275 days by several thousand volunteers, it was part of a major propaganda initiative by the socialist government of Salvador Allende. The building was used as a cultural centre until the 1973 Chilean coup d ’ état and in early 2006 a fire destroyed parts of the building, prompting the government to rethink the original sense of the building and return it to a being a public cultural center. Named after Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist Gabriela Mistral, the centre is devoted to performing arts and music. Among activities, it offers contemporary drama and dance, as well as classic and popular music, as a space for continuous development and experimentation. DADA Distrikt Location: Brno, Czech Republic Architect: KOGAA Completed: 2020 This industrial building, built between 1910 and 1920, was a textile factory on the Svitavský riverside in the industrial Zbrojovka area of Brno. It changed function several times, including being used as a school between the 1960s and 1990s, but was vacant for 20 years until 2019 when, due to its position and the rising costs of living in the city, it was considered a good opportunity for redevelopment. The four-story building now comprises 10 residential units and open spaces for commercial and office spaces at ground level, as well as a semi-intensive green roof that is a community garden for residents. Communal spaces maintain original elements, including the rounded corners of the staircase and the geometry of the façade, as well as its golden finish that references the classic yellow plaster of Brno’s factories. As well as delivering the usual advantages of adaptive reuse, retaining existing industrial elements through interior design also increased the development’s value as it is unique among the area’s real estate. 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