Adaptive reuse is a powerful approach to architecture that reduces environmental impact, celebrates culture, and creates unique spaces. Adaptive reuse involves transforming existing buildings so that they may serve a new and modern purpose, such as turning a warehouse into an apartment building or a historic church into an office. By re-utilizing existing buildings, the total carbon footprint from “new builds” is significantly reduced, while preserving our connection to the past.
“Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings” – Jane Jacobs
Picture the most sustainable building you can. Does it have solar panels? Does it have automated sunshades on a shimmering facade? Maybe even a green roof or green walls?
Though these are excellent features and strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of a new building, there is an important question any environmentally conscious property owner or architect should ask first: Is a new building even needed at all?
Adaptive reuse is a powerful approach to architecture that reduces environmental impact, celebrates culture, and creates unique spaces. Adaptive reuse involves transforming existing buildings so that they may serve a new and modern purpose, such as turning a warehouse into an apartment building or a historic church into an office. By re-utilizing existing buildings, the total carbon footprint from “new builds” is significantly reduced, while preserving our connection to the past.
"The greenest building is the one that is already standing" – AIA 2018 National President Carl Elfante
The answer can be summed up in two words: embodied carbon.
Embodied carbon is the energy that goes into constructing a building. It is the sum of all the resources used to extract the materials, transport them to the site, construct the building, maintain it, and finally, to demolish it. The building industry has one of the largest carbon footprints of our industrialized world. Every time a building is demolished, not only is more energy put into the demolition process, but all the resources put into creating and maintaining that building throughout its lifespan are lost. The materials so painstakingly extracted from nature are turned to rubble and taken to a landfill, and the whole process begins again to put a new building in its place.
A report by the US National Trust for Historic Preservation found that ‘it takes between 10 and 80 years for a new building that is 30 per cent more efficient than an average-performing existing building to overcome, through efficient operations, the negative climate change impacts related to the construction process’. This study does not take into account the loss of embodied energy, which would take much, much longer to recover.The report concluded that ‘reusing an existing building and upgrading it to be as efficient as possible is almost always the best choice regardless of building type and climate’. This sentiment is captured best by the mantra coined by AIA 2018 National President Carl Elfante: “The greenest building is the one already standing.”
The benefits of adaptive reuse expand beyond environmental sustainability into the area of cultural resilience. Historic buildings were built at a time when different materials, skills, tastes, and values existed. They tell the story of who came before us and help establish the identity of a place. Old buildings are impossible to authentically re-create, and when they are lost, they are gone forever. Adaptive reuse can maintain a connection to our collective history while breathing new life into these buildings, continuing to share their stories with future generations. More and more often, it is these historic, characterful spaces to which people gravitate, making them a powerful tool in community-building and place-making. Embracing our past through adaptive reuse is more than just preserving a historic building, it is incorporating the existing urban fabric into our daily lives to be utilized, contemplated, and experienced in modern ways.
The idea of transformation is illustrated in the many lives of the Fisher Mansion Carriage House. Tucked into a bend of the Jordan River, this building has been a carriage house, convent, addiction recovery center, and now, a river education center . The Carriage House has adapted to the changing needs of our community as each new use has added another layer of history and character. The decision to renovate the Carriage House into a river education center shows the changing values of our community and serves a new generation of community members who want to foster a closer connection to nature. When the opportunity arises to renovate a historic building, we can be critical champions for history by making room for the past while also meeting the current needs and values or our community in new and exceptional ways.
Adapting a historic building to a new use does not come without constraints. Historic buildings functioned very differently in the past than our buildings do today, with different layouts, technology, and programming of space. Ironically, it is often these constraints that spark the creative solutions that push designers to new levels of innovation.
Unlike designing a new building on an empty site, many of the standard architectural solutions to contemporary needs cannot be as easily applied to historic buildings. They must be rethought and reworked to fit harmoniously into the building's existing fabric. This calls for new solutions, new ideas, and - sometimes -spectacular results!
A unique example can be found in Park City’s High West Distillery - a distillery, saloon, and restaurant housed in a conjoined historic home and livery stable. The two separate buildings on their own were not large enough to meet the spatial requirements of the distillery, so a new addition conjoining the buildings was added to house the distillery machinery. The simple solution of a glass corridor connecting the two buildings became a display area for the distillery machinery as well as an intriguing backdrop for a new outdoor courtyard placed between the two buildings. This courtyard provides additional seating for the restaurant and is a gathering space that is enjoyed all year round.
The adaptive reuse of these two buildings preserves the history of Park City’s Main street, while also adding an authentic and rustic feel that heightens patrons' dining and social experience. The unique atmosphere of these two buildings could be recreated today, but the ingenuity of this adaptive reuse project allows the history and character of this place to survive as part of our lived experience.
Adaptive reuse is far more than just the reuse of an old building. It is about harnessing the qualities of an existing place to be the driving force for a new space that is unique and of its time. Adaptive reuse unleashes the potential of our existing resources to create transformed places that tell the stories of who we are and where we are going. By foregoing the tendency to demolish and build new, we can extend and prolong the lifespan of our material and cultural resources as they become a palette for new experiences in new spaces. This often means using less and spending less to do more and gain more.
The transformation and re-imagining of existing buildings will continue to play a vital role in years to come as they reduce our impact on the environment and improve quality of life for people in our communities socially, environmentally, economically, and culturally. Adaptive reuse is every bit as innovative and exciting as building new, and the benefits are endless. The possibilities stretch as far as our openness and creativity.
