Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings—2nd Edition

A special issue of Heritage (ISSN 2571-9408). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 1599

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Planning, Design, Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, 00196 Rome, Italy
Interests: building restoration; positive energy building; energy transition; environmental design; resilience
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Adaptive reuse of heritage buildings is a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to new construction, which is experiencing an unprecedented rise driven by an increased awareness of climate change and its impact on our planet and its inhabitants. Adaptive reuse allows for the preservation of historic buildings and their cultural significance, ensuring that they remain a part of the community's identity.

However, adaptive reuse of heritage buildings faces several technical challenges that must be addressed to ensure the successful repurposing of these buildings. One of the main challenges is the need to balance preservation and transformation, which requires respecting the original character and cultural significance of the building while adapting it to new uses. Other challenges include energy efficiency, environmental performances, code problems, hazardous materials, physical restrictions, and economic considerations.

This Special Issue aims to explore these challenges and responses together, collecting original articles, reviews, and case studies. The Special Issue will focus on the challenges and opportunities of the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings, the role of stakeholders, the impacts on the surrounding community and on the environment, case studies of successful adaptive reuse, ethical and aesthetic considerations, the role of new technology, and other related topics. The Special Issue will provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to share their findings and insights on the challenges and opportunities of the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings, promoting the sustainable and responsible reuse of heritage buildings.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Maria Beatrice Andreucci
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • heritage buildings
  • adaptive reuse
  • sustainable development
  • climate change
  • environmental design

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 7192 KB  
Article
The Redevelopment of Post-Earthquake 1980 Neighbourhoods in Naples: Climate-Oriented Building Retrofit and Preservation of Design Cultural Values and Authorship Conditions
by Mario Losasso, Federica Dell'Acqua and Sara Verde
Heritage 2025, 8(9), 372; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8090372 - 10 Sep 2025
Viewed by 708
Abstract
The reuse of buildings of documentary value, as an expression of authorship and of a research trajectory within the debate on contemporary architectural design, represents a sustainable retrofitting approach, as it enables the extension of the life cycle of buildings as a resource. [...] Read more.
The reuse of buildings of documentary value, as an expression of authorship and of a research trajectory within the debate on contemporary architectural design, represents a sustainable retrofitting approach, as it enables the extension of the life cycle of buildings as a resource. The adaptive reuse of buildings entails several cultural and technical challenges for a balance between conservation and transformation. This topic lies in the Italian debate on the technological, energy and housing needs inadequacy of the housing stock. Within this scenario, the PINQuA—Programma Innovativo Nazionale per la Qualità dell’Abitare (Innovative National Programme for Housing Quality) constitutes an innovative factor in the process of upgrading socially, physically, and functionally degraded housing contexts. The paper investigates the sustainable redevelopment of architects Franco Purini and Laura Thermes’ residential building block in the Marianella neighbourhood in Northern Naples. The methodology is based on the identification of the conditions of authorship, the relationship with the values of the pre-existing elements of the urban environment, and the expression of 1980s architecture. The results of the design proposal are measured by indicators of environmental and energy performance. The design proposal develops a retrofitting approach for contemporary housing by maintaining the residential function and reusing public and collective spaces adapted to the new climate regime and social needs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings—2nd Edition)
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