Title

Author(s)

Andrea Crudeli

Affiliation

The University of Pisa

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/QBVI8047

Keywords

Adaptive Reuse ; International Conference ; Manifesto

PP

14-25

How to Cite

Crudeli, Andrea. “Five Points for an Early Methodological Manifesto of Adaptive Reuse.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 14–25. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

In September 2025, the University of Pisa hosted a conference on adaptive reuse that attracted notable attention within the international academic debate. The discussions made clear that adaptive reuse today calls for a renewed disciplinary reconnaissance: the topic has consolidated as a professional and educational urgency, and it demands a methodological deepening capable of supporting practice with robust scientific and critical tools. The scientific direction of the conference intentionally shaped an open arena where professional experiences and theoretical research could converge, with a marked commitment to an internationally representative set of contributors. The result was a deliberately heterogeneous field of positions, allowing the debate to register how adaptive reuse is being approached across different contexts, traditions, and operative cultures. After attending the presentations and engaging closely with the papers gathered in these proceedings, I attempted to distill a set of recurring themes that repeatedly structured the conversation. Rather than proposing an exhaustive synthesis, these five points work as initial coordinates, a shared vocabulary through which the multiplicity of case studies, methods, and theoretical framings can be read in relation to one another. In this sense, the following five sections are proposed as the beginning of a wider discussion: they outline a possible methodological horizon for adaptive reuse by linking value assessment, transformation, civilizational meaning, sustainability, and the construction of dialogue between inherited fabric and contemporary intervention. These five opening points can be read as the premise for a wider, ongoing discussion on adaptive reuse conceived as a methodological culture. I hope future editions of the conference will make it possible to continue developing this research and to return to these questions collectively, with the same openness and international depth. Because adaptive reuse is, indeed, a generational task, and this conference has been an extraordinary opportunity to build an academic and professional community in which to understand, together, how to address this emerging discipline.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.