Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1
Abstract
This volume gathers the proceedings of the first international scientific conference dedicated to adaptive reuse, marking a significant occasion for dialogue among scholars, architects, researchers, and practitioners engaged with one of the most pressing questions in contemporary architecture. Conceived as the beginning of a long-term and patient research trajectory, the conference sets out to investigate adaptive reuse in its full complexity: by tracing its historical roots, examining the cultural and architectural debates that have shaped it over time, and reflecting on the ways in which contemporary design is responding to the growing need to work with existing buildings, ruins, and inherited spaces. It also looks ahead, asking what kinds of theoretical, technical, and civic challenges adaptive reuse will need to confront in the future.
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.
Table of Contents
0014. Andrea Crudeli. Five Points for an Early Methodological Manifesto of Adaptive Reuse
0026. Emanuele Carrai. A Wrinkle in Time. Adaptive Reuse as a Relational Practice
0032. Francesca Molle. Recyclable City
0040. Syed Hamid Akbar. Reactivating Colonial Heritage Adaptive Reuse as a Tool for Urban Regeneration in Karachi
0047. Greta Allegretti, Pietro Brunazzi, Amath Luca Diatta, Sara Ghirardini. Fashion-Based Adaptive Reuse and its Cultural (and Social) Meaning
0055. Mariella Annese, Milena Farina. Adaptive Reuse for a Children’s City
0063. Marianna Arcieri, Oscar Eugenio Bellini. Responsive University Residence Case Studies and Design Approaches
0071. Luigi Arcopinto. An Orange House for Work
0078. Claudia Aveta. The Restoration Project Architecture, Adjustments and Energy Efficiency
0086. Camila Aybar, Juan Jose Mateos. An Act in Eight Variations Instructions for Managing Obsolescence, 2006–2026
0093. Hulya Aybek, Mustafa Koçak. Reclaiming the Forgotten: Adaptive Reuse of Yenice Han as Threshold
0098. Agustin Azar. Plasticity and Distortion Exploring Office Obsolescence in Buenos Aires
0106. Giulia Baccetti. From Waste to Worth Participatory and Sustainable Adaptive Reuse
0114. Gino Baldi, Serena Comi. Stratigraphy as an Adaptive Tool for Building Heritage Parallel Reading of Three Ongoing “Adaptive Reuse” Projects
0121. Fruzsina Barta, Zsófia Horváth-Farkas, Bence Török. Architecture of the Found Broadening the Perspective of Adaptive Reuse from Buildings to Materials
0129. Brunilda Basha, Erika Ruiz. Memory, Function, and Space Adaptive Reuse as a Strategy for Reintegrating Ottoman Heritage in Albania
0137. Michela Bassanelli. Adaptive Reuse for Museums on Sites of Perpetrators
0145. Marziyeh Bazyar. Reframing Heritage Hans Hollein’s Transformation of a Mansion into a Museum
0151. Nikola Beim. Riesentor and its Layered Character
0158. Paolo Belardi, Monica Battistoni, Camilla Sorignani. Learning from Earthquakes Scaffolding as Adaptive Architecture
0166. Tommaso Berretta. Adaptive Reuse as a Cultural Strategy: The Case of Cinema Bologna in Rome
0175. Vladimir Bojković. Reframing a Monument: The House of Revolution in Nikšić between Memorial Architecture and Fragmented Adaptive Reuse
0181. Giuseppina Bosso. From “Definitive” to “Reversible” Architecture
0189. Karina Brünner. Pastoral Properties as a Resource for Revitalizing Town Centers
0197. Giuseppe Canestrino. Climbing a Village Methods and Design Outcomes for the Widespread Reuse of the Hard-to-Reach Historic Center of Morano Calabro
0205. Deniz Çevik, Özgün Özçakır. Gasworks in Istanbul: the Challenge of Context-Sensitive Adaptive Reuse
0212. Francesco Chiacchiera. Care as Design Strategy Adaptive Reuse as a Curatorial Practice
0220. Yi Xing Chow. Adaptive Reuse of Penang Shophouses in George Town, Malaysia: an Overview
0227. Armando Consoli. Transforming the Palau Nacional: Gae Aulenti’s Evolving Approach to Architectural Adaptive Reuse Criticism, Context, and Design Compromise
0235. Ana Curk. Endangered Heritage: Adaptive Reuse of the War-Damaged General Staff in Belgrade
0243. Francesca Daprà, Andrea Dechamps, Andrea Bongiovanni, Martina Pagliarani. Living Stones Adaptive Reuse and Social Regeneration of Abandoned Monastic Complexes in Italy
0251. Faye Watson Davies. Reclaiming the People’s Palace Critical Conservation of Great Yarmouth’s Winter Gardens
0258. Lieven De Groote, Ana Castillo. A Living Lab Design, Development, and Implementation of Circular Renovation Strategies
0266. Giulia De Lucia. Adaptive Reuse of Urban Religious Heritage A Historical Perspective from the Centre of Turin
0274. Laura De Riso, Teresa Cunha Ferreira. Preserving the Palimpsest: Adaptive Reuse of Palazzo Donnaregina (MADRE) in Naples by Álvaro Siza
0282. Andrea Dechamps, Francesca Daprà, Maria Pilar Vettori. Dwelling in Memory Adaptive Reuse and Technological Design Strategies for the Bestetti Hangar in Arcore
0290. Ar. Mayuri V Deodhar. Reimagining Abandonment: Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Infrastructure in the Historic Town of Achalpur, India
0297. Eduardo Delgado Orusco. Reuse of Religious Heritage in the Catholic Context A Comprehensive Strategy at the Territorial Level
0306. Andrés de Santiago Aréizaga. Void Reuse Adaptive Practices for Cultural Survival in Palestine
0313. Benedetta Di Leo. A Manifesto for Re-Inhabiting Inner Areas Twelve Starting Points to Imagine the Recovery, Re-Use, and Re-Activation of Buildings and Urban Spaces in the Appennino Basso Pesarese–Anconetano
0321. Michele Dovere, Leonardo Junior Pagano. Ruins and Reels The Kelenföld Power Station in Budapest as an Emblematic Case of Immaterial Adaptive Reuse through Cinematography
0328. Rev Dr Ruth Dowson. Filling the Religious Void: But with What? A Strategic Event Management Approach to Eventization of Decommissioned and Deconsecrated Faith Spaces
0336. Tommaso Empler, Elena D’Angelo, Mario Ambrogi. Exploring Photogrammetry-Based Information Models within hBIM Contexts
0344. Luca Esposito. Interior Reuse Rewriting the Infra-Ordinary for Flexible Living
0352. Gábor Fábián DLA. Transformation of a 100-year-old Fruit Storage Building Family Home in Szentendre
0358. Milena Farina. Adaptive Reuse for Collective Spaces in Modern Neighborhoods
0366. Alberto Ferraresi. Former Saint Dominic Convent in Pesaro Natural Renewal of Religious Memory
0373. Attilio Ferraro, Pierfrancesco Fiore, Emanuela D’Andria. Adaptive reuse models for the regeneration of small towns in inner areas: a systematic review following the PRISMA protocol
0381. Imma Forino. Interior Reuse An Italian Conversation with the Built Environment
0388. Pedro Freitas. Design Strategies of Palazzo Agonigi da Scorno Intervention by Piero Sanpaolesi Bridging Urban Remains through Formal Continuity
0396. Julia García González. The Musealisation of the Baelo Claudia Archaeological Site, Cádiz, Spain
0403. Mattia Gennari, Camilla Iaquone, Gianluca Falaschi. The Loggia of Palazzo Valori-Altoviti The Reuse Project for a House in Borgo degli Albizi in Florence
0411. Simone Gheduzzi. Silent resonances: Circus Arts Center in a Deconsecrated Church
0418. Federico Maria Giorgi, Oscar Eugenio Bellini. French Student Housing Turn Industries into Great Good Places of University Life
0426. Claudia Gowgiel, Pinelopi Filothei Karali. Fricks – Upcycled Foamed Bricks Abundance from Waste through Alkali-Activated Material Research
0434. Ed Green. Stories of Home Imaginative Storytelling as a Tool for Successful Adaptation
0442. James Hamilton, Malin Heyman. Adaptive Reuse as Situated Critical Practice Torö and Handelsresanden
0450. Douglas Hassebroek AIA. Your Gate has Changed Adaptive Reuse at the Heart of the Modern Airport
0457. José Evandro Henriques, Fernando Moreira, Robert Schmidt III, Mila Santos. Spirit of Architecture The Adaptive Reuse of Queira-Deus House in Brazil
0464. James Hepper, Daniel Rea, Paola Zanotto. Regenerative Processes at Scale An Adaptive Reuse Strategy for Port Talbot
0472. Bart Hollanders, Filippo Cattapan. (In) (Out) Si(d)(t)e Reconsidering the Boundaries Between Old and New
0479. Francesco Iuliano. Mind the Gap Between City and University Adaptive Reuse of Intermediate Spaces in West Naples
0487. Rabab Raes Kazem, Noor Abdulkhaleq. The Memory of Oil Re-Inhabiting Kuwait’s Forgotten Modernism
0495. Kivanc Kilinc. Rethinking Adaptive Reuse: Three Buildings and Their Curious Disappearance
0503. Hyunggyu Kim. Dive with Me! Democratic Architectural Experience in the Age of Media
0509. Jonas Klaassen. Ephemeral Reuse Festivals and Public Space in 18th century Paris
0517. Saadet Kök Ayaz, Duygu Cankurtaran. Creative Pedagogies on Adaptive Reuse: Reimagining Istanbul SSK Zeyrek Building
0525. Vsevolod Kondratiev-Popov. Seconded Subjectivity Design Agency in Reuse
0532. Trayana Kovacheva. Reinventing Liberty Adaptive Reuse and the Contemporary Life of Early Modern Architecture
0540. Magnus Reffs Kramhøft, Line Kjær Frederiksen. Finding Relevance in the Overlooked A Case Study into the Value Assessment of Younger Obsolete Buildings
0548. Barbora Krejčová, Jan Foretník. Typology of Losses Adaptive Reuse Strategies
0556. Karl Kvaran. Adaptive Reuse at Stöng Architecture as Interpretive Transformation
0564. Carlos Labarta Aizpún, José Antonio Alfaro Lera. Intervention in the Compromise of Caspe Castle A Search of the Continuity
0572. Andreas Lechner. Typological Affordances Drawing Adaptions Over Time
0581. Francesco Leoni, Rebecca Fascia, Livio Pinto. Architectural Identity and Reuse The Benedictine Church Case Study in Piacenza
0589. Francesco Lipparini, Greta Manelli, Danilo Manzo. Unfolding the Layers: Legacy and Potential Futures of Reno Valley Paper Mills (Bologna)
0597. Guiller Lopez, Brinda Sarma, Vasiliki Pezodromou. What If It Survived? Virtual Adaptive Reuse and the Case of Bodénska Huset
0605. Davide Lucia. Reuse the Landscape in Post-catastrophe Contexts Reflections on the Case of San Martino Valle Caudina
0610. Laura Magri, Muck Petzet. From “Baukultur” to “Umbaukultur” A Critical Framework for Adaptive Reuse
0615. Benedetta Marradi, Francesco Parri, Sara Benvenuto. The Sant’Agostino Complex in Pietrasanta Adaptive and integrated strategies for sustainable reuse
0623. Estefanía Martín. Cinderella’s Slipper New Uses and Junkspace for Old Buildings
0633. Patrizio M. Martinelli. Elements, Montage, Reclaimed Practice and Pedagogy of Adaptive and Creative Reuse
0642. Pedro Mendes da Rocha, Felipe de Souza Noto. A Museum of the Portuguese Language at the Luz Station
0652. Aleksandr Mergold. An American Spolia: The Other Extraction The Impossible out of the Quotidian
0663. Manlio Michieletto. Reviving the Caravanserais Adaptive Reuse of the Wikala of Qansuh al-Ghuri in Contemporary Cairo
0670. Gianluigi Mondaini, Francesco Chiacchiera. Adaptive Reuse Strategies for the Former Convent of San Francesco alle Scale in Ancona
0678. Fernando Moral-Andrés. Critically Ephemeral Heritages? Abandonment, Reactivation, and the Crisis of Peripheral Heritage in Zapadores – Ciudad del Arte and La Tabacalera (Madrid)
0686. Larissa Mörschbächer. Venice Charter (1964) and Madrid-New Delhi Document (2017) Some Conceptual Developments on Authenticity
0693. Walter Nicolino. The Learning Factory An Adaptive Reuse of a Former Factory in Bologna for the New Headquarters of a University for Applied Arts and Design
0700. Liliane Janine Nizzola. The Brazilian Fortress of São José da Ponta Grossa The challenges of restoring and providing accessibility
0708. Sergio Ortín-Molina, Silvia Domene-Camarasa. Beyond Materiality Adaptive Reuse as a Situated and Ethical Practice in the Global South
0716. Yeşim Kutkan Öztürk. Sacred Continuities The Afterlife of the Ancyran Temple of Augustus and Roma
0724. Irene Pasina. Reviving Heritage for a Resilient Urban Future The Heart of Sharjah Project in the UAE
0731. Angelo Passuello. Timber Trusses in Medieval Roofs Strategies of Conservation, Integration, and Replacement
0739. Miquel Peiro, Anna Maria Bordas. A Comparative Analysis of Adaptive Reuse Design Strategies for Two Recent Cultural Projects in Rennes New Museum of Fine Arts in the Maurepas district (Titan Architectes) and New Cultural Center of St Helier (Guinée_Potin)
0748. Lisandra Perez Zayas, Rafael Vargas Correa. Waste to Opportunity Reusing an Abandoned Storage Building in Puerto Rico
0756. Ariadna Perich Capdeferro, Roger Such Sanmartín. Contrasting Dialogues Lluís Ma Vidal i Arderiu and the Intervention at Santa Maria de Lillet.
0762. Aleksandra Pešterac. The Poetics of Abandonment in Architecture
0770. Mariateresa Petino. When Ruins Speak The Transformation of the Convent of Santa Maria do Bouro
0778. Karolina PieniĘŽek. Restoring Transparency Adaptive Reuse of Tashkent’s Panoramic Cinema
0786. Endy Yudho Prasetyo. Adaptive Future of Abandoned Dutch Colonial-Era Sugar Factories in Java
0794. Enam Rabbi Adnan, Md. Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, Tazrin Islam. From Confinement to Community Integration Revitalizing the Old Dhaka Central Jail Through Adaptive Reuse
0802. Tobias Rabold. Doubting Spolia Adaptive Reuse of a Stone
0810. Manuela Raitano. The Aesthetic of Reuse An “Unglorious” Condition for Contemporary Architects
0817. Mahwish Ghulam Rasool, Syed Hamid Akbar. Layers of Meaning Adaptive Reuse, Cultural Continuity, and the Spirit of Place in Pakistan’s Heritage Architecture
0824. Mirko Romagnoli. Accessibility and Conservation in Historic Gardens The Accessibility Plan for the Boboli Garden
0831. Vanni Sacconi. Between Site-Specificity and the Persistence of Memory The Marino Marini Museum in the former Church of San Pancrazio, Florence
0841. Luis del Campanar Santos Muñoz. Bullrings Roofing in Spain Functional Solutions for a Heritage Future
0849. Anne Scheinhardt. Too much context? Rome, its forgotten industrial past, and adaptive reuse
0857. Carla Sechi, Pier Francesco Cherchi, Marco Lecis. Design Strategies for the Adaptive Reuse of Decommissioned Rural Churches The Case of the Coastal Landscape of Sardinia
0865. Emily Marie Shiga. 空き家 (Akiya): Japan’s Abandoned Assets
0872. Franc Shllaku. The Pyramid of Tirana From the “Mausoleum” of the Albanian Communist Dictator to a Cultural Hub
0880. Julian Snethlage. On-Site Reuse – Design Strategy for the East Wing of the Festspielhaus Hellerau
0888. Emma Sumrow. The Pyramid of Tirana A Site of Public Spectacle and Private Power
0896. Cecilia Sundström. Changing values Motivations for Adaptive Reuse in Urban Development
0903. Paul Susini. And the Smell of Rot Fills the Country Reflections on an Architecture-Consuming Society
0911. Laura Suvieri, Fabio Bianconi, Marco Filippucci. Toward Systemic Reuse A GIS-Based Model for Adaptation in Spatial Planning
0919. Melanie Tamm, Lionel Devlieger. Case Study: MAD The Center for Fashion & Design in Brussels, Belgium
0927. Concetta Tavoletta, Vittorio Vernazzani. Topographies of Care Adaptive Reuse, from Last-Scape to Safe Space
0935. András Timár. Augmented Reality-Based Reconstructions in Historical Sites An Example from Aquincum
0942. Valerio Tolve. From Lounge Durée to Innovation Regenerating Alpine territories Through the Adaptive Reuse as a Strategy for Sustainability and the Rediscovery of Everyday Life Heritage
0950. Eirini Travlou, Ivan Nevzgodin. [Re]formation of Maritime Dystopias
0957. Graziella Trovato. The Ecology of Reuse in Heritage Contexts
0966. Monica Tușinean. Beyond Taxonomy: Adaptive Reuse Phenomenographies Design Driven Research on the Reanimation of Post-Communist Industrial Ruins
0974. Marcus van der Meulen. Negotiation and Hybridity: Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage in Warsaw
0982. Rita Vasco. Memory. Territory. Identity Church of Santa Maria do Castelo
0990. Giacomo Viscovo, Lorenzo Palladino, Giuseppe Sorrentino. Urban Spolia The Case of Carminiello ai Mannesi
0996. Georgios Vlachodimos. Design Workflows in Digital Heritage. The Propylaea in Archaeological Site of Delos in Greece
1004. Maya Weber. Adaptive Reuse of a Historic Mortuary Chapel in Dresden
1012. Elvina S. Wijaya, Stephanus W. Dharmatanna, Timoticin Kwanda. The Adaptive Reuse of Pos Bloc Surabaya Reinventing Context for Community
1020. Esra Özkan Yazgan, Sermin Çakıcı Alp. Determining an adaptive reuse strategy for cultural sustainability A discussion on the Ottoman hamams in Turkey
1028. Maria Yioutani-Iacovides. Manchester’s Regeneration and Adaptive Reuse in the Twenty-First Century
1036. Zhenzhen Yu, Robert Schmidt III, Simon Richards. Proposing an Analytical Framework for Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings
1044. Zhengwen Zhu. Contemporary Spolia in Adaptive Reuse