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► Journal BrowserSpecial Issue "Sustainable Reuse of Historical Buildings"
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 December 2021.
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear colleagues,
The issue of underused or vacant historical buildings in contemporary cities is a massive phenomenon, and the subject of wide-ranging debate. These buildings embody a dormant asset that, furthermore, creates problems and degradation in the urban fabric. To tackle this subject and to trigger real operations of sustainable reuse and valorisation imply the reconsideration of some established beliefs. In particular, the types of adopted values are often called into question; not only financial but also social and cultural.
To foster the sustainable valorisation of abandoned buildings and unused spaces in cities, the concepts of circular economy and adaptive reuse are crucial. To adopt circular economy within the built environment means to consider mainly three aspects:
i) Preserving the natural capital of finite resources by creating conditions for soil regeneration;
ii) Maximising resource yields by planning a loop circulation of products through regeneration, renewal, and recycling;
iii) Designing the management of buildings and facilities’ obsolescence.
Adaptive reuse is based upon the assumption that buildings, areas, districts, and sites are not static entities. They are not designed simply for one single use during their life cycle. Adaptive reuse is an approach that can be considered sustainable. This is because it consists of the practice of introducing new content in an existing site, paying particular attention to the needs of society, and following the principle of maximum conservation and minimum transformation.
This Special Issue aims to encourage works in both theoretical and applied fields dealing with different issues of sustainable reuse of historical buildings in the framework of circular economy and adaptive reuse concepts.
Prof. Dr. Isabella M. Lami
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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
- sustainable reuse
- vacant historical buildings
- circular economy
- adaptive reuse
- financial value
- cultural value
- social value
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability Protocols: relationship with Circular Economy
Authors: Gaballo Marika; Mecca Beatrice; Abastante Francesca
Affiliation: Department of Regional & Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy
Abstract: This paper explores the concept of Circular Economy (CE) through the lens of the sustainability protocols for the reuse of buildings. Cities and the built environment can play a key role in the transition to a CE, especially considering the documented negative global impact due to resource consumption and waste generation. This is recognized among the principles of circularity defined by the European Commission towards a general strategy for a sustainable built environment, which promotes initiatives to encourage building reuse and reduce land consumption. It is proved that the adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings, sites or areas can bring environmental, social and economic benefits in favor of an urban strategy based on CE principles by generating useful values to support innovative development dynamics. In this perspective, the sustainability protocols can be identified as useful tools to pursue strategies for spreading the culture of sustainable build environment. Considering the huge abandoned architectural heritage within the Italian territory, this paper aims at analyzing how the most widely used sustainability protocols in the national context currently address the enhancement of the reuse of buildings, in order to improve envi-ronmental, social and economic quality in the built environment. We discuss the results high-lighting how and which sustainability protocols better intercept these issues.
Title: Assessing social sustainability through the lens of public housing: strategies for the adaptive reuse of underused spaces
Authors: Caterina Quaglio; Elena Todella; Isabella Lami
Affiliation: Politecnico di Torino
Abstract: Public housing represents a significant but dormant asset in Italian rental market. The distortion Covid-19 caused to the functioning of our cities has subjected residential spaces to a further level of stress, accentuating pre-existing inequalities affecting public housing complexes – such as the frequent lack of maintenance and an allocation system unable to answer the current multifaceted demand. However, it also made particularly evident the potentials of undervalued and underused spaces as viable sources of social sustainability. This research moves from the assumption that an observation at the micro scale could provide new insights into the sustainable valorization of undervalued and underused residential spaces. Consequently, moving from the in-depth observation of a selection of buildings under the property of the Territorial Household Agency in Turin, it aims to assess the potential for public housing adaptive reuse at different scales – from the apartment to the neighbourhood – in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The paper puts forward a methodological approach, widening the way those spaces are normally assessed, by focusing on often neglected spatial resources made instead evident by the pandemic – e.g. communal gardens, apartment-block terraces, neighborhood brownfields – as potential source of social sustainability for communities in residential areas in general.
Title: Urban Regeneration as Innovation Process: Experimenting with Evaluation in the Reuse Strategy for the Historic Centre of Salerno (Italy)
Authors: Maria Cerreta*; Grazia Concilio**; Ludovica La Rocca*; Vincenza Solli***
Affiliation: (*) Department of Architecture (DiARC), University of Naples Federico II, Italy; (**) Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DASTU), Polytechnic of Milan, Italy; (***) Urban Regeneration and Social Innovations, Blam, Salerno, Italy.
Abstract: In their evolution, city models have increasingly promoted the collaborative paradigm, from the “Smart City” to the “Sharing City” to the “Eco-City”, up to the more recent “Co-City”. This experimentation process reconceptualises urban polycentric governance in a multi-partnership perspective, supporting the right to the city to be part of the decision-making processes that shape lifestyles. Starting from the variability and the multi-actor character of the context, the decision-making processes and the related decision support systems are connected to the theory of complex and adaptive systems, understood as systems capable of changing and learning from experience responding and adapting to changes. The complex systems approach provides new roles and tools for city makers to govern complexity and interface with its transitions triggered by innovation processes. While it is clear that the top-down/bottom-up dichotomy in urban regeneration processes has been overcome, it is also true that innovation frequently arises from proactive and creative communities, that experience in the sustainable reuse of vacant historical buildings. These processes work on plots or systems of punctual areas on a neighbourhood scale as laboratories where new forms of citizen involvement can be tested by co-producing new complex values. Within the framework of the theories of complexity and transition, the decision-making and evaluation processes inherent in urban transformations are considered, not only as tools for identifying preferable alternatives but as meta-design vectors capable of orient urban strategies in a flexible, dynamic and incremental way. The adaptability of the evaluation process therefore requires a multi-methodological approach that also includes participatory and interaction tools at different stages, making the evaluation a path of sharing and learning with the communities of reference. The contribution analyses how evaluation, in its various forms and interpretations, has guided and scaled the regeneration strategy in the historic center of Salerno (Italy): from the adaptive reuse of a former church (SSMOLL) to the definition of a network of places of ecclesiastical heritage, up to the co-design of an area of biodiversity (Montevergine Park).
Title: How to reduce initial investments in a brownfield adaptive reuse: a proposal for an incremental strategy
Authors: Roberta Ingaramo; Isabella M. Lami; Matteo Robiglio
Affiliation: Politecnico di Torino
Abstract: The paper illustrates a strategy about the remediation of polluted ex-industrial sites considering an adaptive remediation and reuse structured in an incremental approach. The main features of an adaptive reuse intervention are generally considered: low investment; high heritage awareness; urban identity; strong community engagement and green concern. These characteristics are only partially compatible with the transformation of brownfields, mainly because of the usual size of the area; which would require a large initial investment to purchase and convert the asset. To tackle this issue, we are proposing an incremental strategy which starts from the design process based on three main principles: i) keeping and reusing as much as possible of the existing buildings and facilities; ii) drawing the master plan layout according to the pollutants, their zone distribution and the remediation techniques; iii) increasing the public interest towards the area, attracting investors and stimulate a mechanism of market value rising of the real estate property. The incremental strategy is illustrated trough the project to reactivate an abandoned industrial area in Venice, Italy.
Title: A: Energiebunker Hamburg – Ecological and economic sustainability of a war relict?
Authors: Drewello, Hansjörg; Kulawik, Nina
Affiliation: University of Applied Sciences Kehl, Germany
Abstract: The Energiebunker in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg used to be a forfeited and overgrown flak bunker – a relict of the Second World War. After the war, the interior of the bunker was blown up, so that only the upper floors and the three- to four-meter-thick concrete walls remained. For more than 60 years the building was not in use. Within the International Building Exhibition (IBA) 2006-2013 in Hamburg the building was transformed and is now used to generate renewable energy and heat for around 1,500 households. Through this adaptive use the bunker could be integrated into the redesigned neighborhood and addition fulfill the needs of society. The historical building was conserved with a new sustainable use and is a tourist attraction nowadays. The paper explores how economically and environmentally sustainable this transformation is and if predicted numbers for 2020 were met. Could this be a second use scenario for other bunker facilities from Second World War?
Keywords: sustainable reuse; vacant historical buildings; adaptive reuse; financial value; economical sustainability; renewable energy; second-use scenarios
Title: Socio-spatial “tabula rasa” and punctual preservation: the case study of Lijiao Village in the City measurable compensations
Authors: Edoardo Bruno
Affiliation: Politecnico di Torino – Department of Architecture and Design
Abstract: Villages in the Cities (VICs) disclose all the contradictions of contemporary Chinese urbanization. Their historical settlements underwent the large masses of floating populations to enter the booming urban economy, consequently redefining their morphological asset. Meanwhile, their urban persistence traces the social and cultural modifications occurring within the metropolis. The extraordinary densification process drew municipal governments' attention, triggering negotiations intended to obtain urban upgrade and social engagement along with their overall transformation. Despite the broad scientific literature on VICs redevelopment, especially from urban planning and social sciences perspectives, little attention has been paid on the spatial and monetary compensation occurring behind forced or planned demolitions. The transition from informal agglomerations towards residential compounds implies a set of actions arranged by local authorities cooperating with real estate developers: existing housing ownership becomes the basis to compensate measurable spaces into new typological configurations defining radical social shifts. Lijiao Village in Guangzhou has been selected as a case study to observe how its urban renewal program hinted the evaluation of historical building preservation set beside large selective tearing down. Cultural heritage and spatial compensations become the cornerstones to reconfigure the village's morphology and everyday life experience framed within interested local groups' mediation.