ABSTRACT
Working with existing buildings for continued use has become increasingly important in contemporary architectural practice. The reasons for this are multiple, ranging from the need for sustainable development patterns, the current economic climate’s need for less costly physical architecture and an ever-increasing awareness of the benefi ts of retaining our architectural heritage. All of this adds to the importance of what can be called ‘adaptive reuse’. Although a widely accepted defi nition of ‘adaptive reuse’ seems to be lacking (for an overview, see Plevoets, 2014; Plevoets and Van Cleempoel, 2013), it implies (partly) changing the function and programme of a building, as well as physically adapting the building to new needs and requirements. The term may refer to altering buildings with heritage value – protected or not protected – or to ‘ordinary’ buildings without historical or architectural value. In what follows, we focus on adaptive reuse of heritage buildings (both protected and non-protected), although several arguments are also applicable to the general building stock.
