Adaptive re-use: Building on a narrative.
In partnership with University of Technology, Sydney.
This is a research project Adapative re-use: Building on a narrative to strengthen the identity of communities and place by the MOA studio at UTS, contributes the the NEBC’s Purple Flag Project.
Studio Abstract
Adaptive reuse is both a viable solution to reducing the carbon footprint of construction, and a sound economic approach which can slow down the urban amnesia of a city and erosion of landscapes.
When considered in its relationship to community, especially a landmark site, it contributes to the layers of history of a place, respects the contributions of those who came before and extends beyond the building itself. The same applies to good entrepreneurial principles, to import or introduce a sparkly new business venture into a community where the product/service does not fit to the needs and desires of a local market, it escalates the chance of failure.
This studio expects students use their architectural lenses, enhanced by Connection to Country frameworks, to engage in finding a relevant new “use” for an existing commercial building before they engage in adapting it to suit its renewed purpose.
Focusing on the Enmore, Newtown and Erskineville precinct, students will work in teams to investigate, map, research the commercial precincts along key arterial roads and laneways to understand site, behaviours, and community before finding the buildings to adapt. Unearthing Indigenous knowledge of country underneath the colonialised structures and roads will be fundamental to the site selection and design approach.
Key objectives of the design approach include:
Purposeful re-design,
Economic resiliency through diversity,
Respecting narrative – who’s story are we responding to?
Resourceful adaptation – reducing landfill
Designing with and for Country – unearthing country displaced.
What is adaptive reuse?
Adaptive reuse, involves transforming buildings for functions different from their original purpose. This practice, often termed recycling or conversion stands as a pragmatic approach to maximising the operational and commercial potential of buildings. It’s a strategy rooted in circular economy principles, offering an low waste alternative to new construction while playing a pivotal role in preserving social and architectural heritage and stimulating urban revitalisation. Architects and entrepreneurs aiming to breathe new life into structures have more success when the product aligns with local market demands, the building can support the new purpose with little intervention and remains financially competitive.
What is Placemaking?
Placemaking is a comprehensive approach to the planning, design, and management of public spaces, leveraging the public assets with the inherent potential of local communities. The overarching goal is to craft public spaces that not only enhance urban vitality but also foster the overall well-being of residents and workers. Rooted in the complex dynamics of place identity (a.k.a. Urban character), placemaking is an approach that integrates fundamental urban design principles with the local human experience.
The Studio:
The approach to adaptive re-use of buildings on high streets with a mix of density and community diversity is rooted in placemaking strategies. To keep a façade of a building and respect the built forms original intended use, helps to maintain a sense of place for generations past, present and sets the expectations on future generations that goes further than aesthetics or streetscapes. It also makes economic sense, as reinventing a building for new uses saves them from redundancy and redevelopment which are both costly economically and environmentally. Precincts and their identities change over time as people, behaviours, and the climate changes. However adaptive reuse and placemaking strategies offer a more nuanced shift that can meet the changing needs of a community without costing the earth.
The community this studio will focus on are within the precincts of Newtown, Enmore and Erskineville, built on unceded Gadigal Land. Centred around the King Street, Enmore Road, Australia Street and Erskineville Road. The area is in a crisis of identity, involuntary displacement as gentrification and homogenisation threatens to erode the identity and contributions of generations of immigration, small family-owned business, creative industries, and entrepreneurialism. As rents increase for business owners and residents, the diversity and equity of access to the area is also impacted, threatening the resilience of the local economy and the sense of pride in place.
Colonisation has also displaced many First Nations people as navigating Country under the built forms, being able to see the stars is diffused by light pollution and all the in-between urban interruptions have also displaced and disoriented.
Many buildings remain empty, many community groups go unseen.
Sites will be focused on the streets highlighted:
North King Street
South King Street
Erskineville Road
Enmore Road
Australia Street (between King Street and Lennox street only)
Newtown Square
In this studio we’ll ask: What are the competing identities within the precinct? Which of these identities should/ could be expressed? How do you make that Decision?
Students will work in teams to map, research, and document the precinct outlined in the map below. From initial mappings the teams will then focus on one distinct area or cluster of buildings and produce a working card model of the area selected. Within each team area, each student will have to select their own building to adapt, they must develop their own client and brief for their sites and work collaboratively to make their proposals respond to one another and the precinct at large.
Prepared by Heleana Genaus, Architect and Co-Founder
RISING SUN
for UTS MOA studio