Knowra Adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse converts an existing building to a new use while retaining substantial parts of its structure. It gives buildings new functions without replacing them entirely.
Building code : A set of regulations governing the design, construction, alteration, and use of buildings. Existing buildings often need code upgrades before a new use can be approved.
Tate Modern : A London art museum housed in the former Bankside Power Station. Its conversion made an industrial power station into a major public museum.
Venice Charter : A 1964 international charter setting principles for the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites. Its conservation principles helped shape later approaches to changing historic buildings.
Embodied carbon : Greenhouse-gas emissions associated with producing, transporting, installing, maintaining, and disposing of building materials. Retaining structure can avoid emissions from producing and installing replacement materials.
Building demolition : The dismantling or destruction of a building, usually to clear its site or recover materials. Demolition removes the structure that adaptive reuse seeks to retain.
Building envelope : The physical boundary between a building’s interior and exterior, including walls, roofs, windows, and foundations. Its condition and performance constrain what can be retained or upgraded.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa : A contemporary art museum in Cape Town, South Africa, adapted from a grain silo complex. Its galleries occupy a reworked industrial structure while preserving the silo’s defining form.
Jane Jacobs : An American-Canadian journalist and urban theorist known for her writing on cities and neighborhood life. Her defense of older urban fabric supported arguments for retaining buildings rather than replacing them.
Life-cycle assessment : A method for estimating the environmental impacts of a product or system across its life cycle. It can compare the impacts of conversion with demolition and replacement construction.
New construction : The creation of a building on a site where the proposed structure did not previously exist. A new building offers design freedom but does not preserve the existing structure.
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