Retrofitting in Riyadh

Supervisor: Dr. Aliaa Elabd

Maryam Azim, Alfaisal University
 Table of Contents

Introduction … 4

Definitions … 4

Problem Statement … 5

Importance of Research … 7

Purpose of Research … 8

Aim of Research … 8

Outcome of Research … 8

Literature Review … 9

Global Application of Adaptive Reuse … 9

Precedents: North America & Canada … 12

Precedents: Europe … 32

Precedents: Australia … 38

Precedent: Africa … 41

Precedents: Asia … 43

Discussion … 51

Expert Opinions … 54

Case Studies … 56

Current Local Urban Outlook … 56

Riyadh: Case Study 1 … 62

 Pakistan’s Ghost Schools … 70

Karachi: Case Study 2 … 71

Conclusion … 74

Appendix … 75

Bibliography … 79
INTRODUCTION

The purpose of an abandoned, established mass and volume is one that can fall under many
definitions today - ​creative reuse,​ ​adaptive reuse,​ ​rehabilitation​, and ​retrofitting​, are some of the
terms that can be applied. The differences between these categories of repurpose and their
application will be explained below.

DEFINITIONS

Adaptive reuse​ C. W. Graves, in Encyclopedia of the City, cites adaptive reuse as a “reuse of a
building by adapting it to accommodate a new use or uses.”​[1]

There has, however, been development since this definition, since adaptive reuse can now be
further categorized​[2]​ into,

within-use:​ the adaptation of a building’s structure or design to attract or retain the same
group of users as before reuse.

Across-use:​ the adaptation of a building’s structure or design to attract a different group

of users from before reuse.

The MIT easy Greening Campus goes into more detail about the process, stating that adaptive
reuse, in order to lengthen the “cradle to grave” lifetime of a building, entails “retaining all or
most of the structural system and as much as possible of other elements, such as cladding,
glass and interior partitions.”​[3]

Adaptive reuse has been acknowledged as a method of preserving heritage - by respecting the
work and design of previous builders, while still modifying buildings to contemporary, or better,
use.​[4]

While adaptive reuse may seem like a more contemporary solution for contemporary problems,
the issue of conservation and reuse is one that is almost as old as developed civilization. As
early as 1790, there have been laws in place for preservation of artifacts, buildings and
monuments. Examples of adaptive reuse from centuries past are:

❖ Selexyz Dominicanen​, a Catholic Dominican church built in 1294 that was

repurposed throughout its life into a number of uses: warehouse, archive, bicycle
park, among others.​[5]​ Today it stands as a library.

❖ The Church Brew Works​, a St. John Baptist Church built in 1902, that was
repurposed into a brewery due to the economic decline of the 20th century that
 caused multiple factories to close down.

❖ Louvre,​ originally a palace built in 1204, went through numerous tear-downs and
rebuilds with no consistency in building design. However, 1989 it was eventually
adaptively reused into a museum by I. M. Pei, with a design that respects the
urban infrastructure of classic typology - compositional strategy and historical
axes to name a few ways - reusing and adapting it into a new pedestrian
network.​[6]

Rehabilitation ​The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission opts to define

rehabilitation as the “act or process of making possible a compatible use fo a property through
repairs, alterations, and additions, while preserving those portions or features which convey its
historical, cultural or architectural values.”[5]

Retrofitting ​The City of Melbourne’s definition of retrofitting states it to be more technical and
system-oriented. Retrofitting also refers to changes in a building, but these changes are meant
to improve energy efficiency, technological aspects, and water efficiency in the building - among
other facets of building system design.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The world population is growing constantly, estimates by the World Population Clock to reach
7.8 billion people in 2020, at the growth rate of 1.05%.[6] Riyadh is no exception to the rule -
apart from residents of the city expanding their families, Riyadh, as a capital city, welcomes
opportunity seekers from around the country, and even the world, every day.

In light of growing trends, more and more cities are moving towards the skyline, building taller
and moving further out from the fringes of their own boundaries. Riyadh’s city limits grow farther
away from its city centers every year, welcoming new developments, new construction and new
residents. All this occurs, however, at the cost of the old, original centers of Riyadh to decrease
in value, in quality of life, and amenities, and municipal attention. In short, these centers are
being abandoned, not held to the same standards as the newer parts of the city, and left
disused. These volumes of concrete and masses of steel are left, either disused, or to be
demolished later.

Neither of these outcomes are sustainably viable.

There is also the case of environmental and economic misuse; in the case of the environment,
the climate, and in light of our collective, ongoing effort towards sustainability.
There is also a waste of natural and built resources - the land is not efficiently used, the
infrastructure a drain on the city with no give-back, and so forth. In terms of the environment, the
state of disrepair may contribute to not only visual pollution, but also air pollution.

The lack of maintenance may cause the building materials to disintegrate and react in a way
that negatively impacts the environment. “​Atmospheric corrosion of metals and their alloys is
very common in the [...] city environment due to the [...] concentration of corrosive pollutants in
air. It results in destruction of various materials, especially metals and their alloys.​”[7]​
​ T ​ he
building would also contribute to the ​urban heat island (UHI) effect​, with no human activity or
intervention on the roof surfaces of or around the buildings, to reduce it. Meanwhile, the
continuous push onwards and outwards for the city’s growth, would cause more and more
asphalt and absorptive materials to be set out and built, further increasing the UHI effect.
Additionally, in Riyadh, In some instances, trees are torn down to make way for buildings,
pavements, and so on - this exacerbates the problem even more.

There is another scenario to be considered: that in which there is initiative to revitalize a certain
neighborhood or district, by introducing new activities and a new design to it - but the conditions
for such a proposal are that first something has to be demolished. This also brings about
negative consequences: extra energy waste, more scrapped material, as well as a large CO​2
emissions for this process, all of which are practically unnecessary, in face of the fact that
adaptive reuse may require less funding, and definitely have less of a harmful impact on the
environment.

In the case of economy, cities face a loss of potential jobs and housing in areas where a
building is disused. There is a logical disconnect when it comes to the public and private
sectors’ single minded focus on investing in brand new projects and creating new economies for
districts - when they could instead be redirecting their efforts for development into communities
with existing means, infrastructure and networks that would require less expense and have a
better chance of positive turn out, commercial interest, and therefore profit.

Additionally, in regards to disuse, these abandoned spaces can attract obstacles to social safety
- crimes now have greater chances of flourishing. There is also the fact that the heritage of the
built environment is not being respected or preserved, and the positive identity and
characteristics of the community become as lost to the people as the buildings themselves.

Community identity is another aspect of this problem, and is heavily affected by such
circumstances in regards to visual representation and aesthetics: a decrepit building is not good
to look at, and does not connect positive tags of pride and identity with neither outsiders and the
neighborhood, nor neighborhood residents and their environment.

A study by Main & Sandoval shows how a community can behave when it holds positive tags for
its ​‘place identity’​, which is, in this case, centered around a park: ​i​nfluenced by [...] specific
physical, social, and cultural elements [...], study participants attempt to maintain identities
influenced by important places in their [...] communities. The result is a park that has emotional
significance for participants, significance that leads to agency – everyday and political practices
– to protect the park, sometimes in the face of immense challenges.[8] ​

Finally, this disregard for abandoned buildings positioned well within the infrastructure of the
built city, and consequent expansion, leads to the formation of suburbs that, due to their
distance from amenities, central city locations and so forth, create a certain lifestyle that has
been proven to be less than adequate in terms of individual health, as well as environmental
responsibility. Increasing distances between destinations with the expansion of the city leads to
a heavy dependence on vehicular transport. With the context of Riyadh society and city culture
in mind, this means dependence on private vehicular transport, with only a minor percentage of
the population using carpooling, or other means of public transport. According to the Ministry of
Transport Annual Report of 2011, “​present Saudi road vehicle emission standards are low
compared to other developed countries and the transition to regulate and introduce cleaner car
technology in the Kingdom is a major challenge.”​[9]

As such, it can be seen that, with minimum policing of standards of carbon emission, footprint,
and so on, expanding the city and causing people to rely more and more on these methods of
transportation is not conducive to the environment. The individual health aspect of this problem
consists of people living sedentary lifestyles, due to a lack of health awareness regarding eating
habits and better lifestyles. This easily escalates into obesity, heart disease, and other health
issues - both physical and mental - as has been seen in the growth of other cities across the
world.​[10]

It can therefore be seen that such cases of city growth - and, in turn, city neglect - can cause
issues in aspects of a community’s

● environmental impact
● economic pact
● social impact,

as well as its identity and the way it shapes the character of the city.

IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

In constant search of better opportunities for work, play and rest, and in the ever uphill struggle
for a more equitable and safer society, it is imperative to better understand the negative aspects
of today’s urban fabric and its effects on society and quality of living - this can in turn help us to
better battle them by setting out strategies and methods that address these exact issues at their
root.
PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

This research is being undertaken to fill in for what seems like an apparent lack of official texts
regarding adaptive reuse in the current built environment of Riyadh.

AIM OF RESEARCH

To learn and apply possibilities from around the world in contextually appropriate strategies for
Riyadh and other cities in the region.

The methodology in this paper is mainly the carrying out of literature review and secondary
research materials. The following questions will be endeavored to ask about each precedent
studied:

● When was the building originally built?

● When did reuse-renovation complete? Which architectural firm completed it?
● Why was reuse considered - what were the structure's failings?
● What was the previous use - and how does it compare to the current use?
● What structural/architectural changes were made to the structure?
● If there are any results of the reuse, were the problems/failings faced earlier, resolved?
How?

OUTCOME OF RESEARCH

As such, methodologies learned of what has been carried out successfully on past precedents,
will be theoretically applied on case studies in the cities of Riyadh, KSA, and elsewhere.
LITERATURE REVIEW

GLOBAL APPLICATIONS OF ADAPTIVE REUSE

With rising awareness over the years of the effects of a more sustainable environment, adaptive
reuse efforts around the world have increased, led by different instigators, with designs at
different scales, and located in different zones of the city.

Instigators can be broadly classified under:

● The public sector:​ The government, various ministries, and such public bodies can and
have taken up initiative to create programs, schemes and other plans for different
regions and cities, to encourage or actively participate in adaptive reuse.

One example is the LA housing scheme program, which dates back to the 1960s. The
scheme is concerned with downtown buildings that are either falling into disrepair or are
not bringing in enough profit to the community - these buildings are then, after
canvassing to make sure they fit certain standards and policies for adaptive reuse, are
worked upon to be used as housing units. This scheme will be discussed later on, in
more detail.

Another example, that has been previously mentioned, is the Louvre Museum, which
was commissioned by then-President of France, François Mitterrand.

Adaptive reuse, then, has been recognized around the world by the public sector, as a
tool that can be employed for a range of uses - from residential, to cultural.

● The private sector:​ Every day, the private sector sees more and more business coming
in through adaptive reuse proposals. This is because the private sector is able to hone in
on smaller scale projects, for specific clients and specific needs, that government-scale
projects may not be equipped to address in such detail. Another reason is that there are
many financial benefits that come with successful adaptive reuse, for developers.​[11]

One example is the adaptive reuse of the Victorian Erskine and American Church, built
in 1894, and which was then adaptively reused into the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in
2011, by the firm Provencher Roy + Associes Architects.​[12]

A second case is Tate Modern Art Gallery, based in London. Originally built as the
Bankside Power Station, it closed in 1981. After Herzog & de Meuron worked upon the
site and structure, it was reopened in 2000, as the Tate Modern.​[13]
 While the private sector does also invest in, and profit from, housing schemes and
residential reuse, it can be seen that many projects are arguably focused on creating
third​ and ​second places​.

● Grassroots/community-led movements:​ These movements are led by community

members who are proactive in the need for their own betterment of the
neighborhood/district/public space, and so forth. Community members may rally forward
with their cause, and eventually gather funding from different sources - private, public
and other community members alike.

One such case of a grassroots movement is the Dunbar Economic Development Corp.,
which lead to the founding of the Dunbar Museum, and accompanying hotel, in East
Lothian, Scotland.​[14]

The scales of these projects can be either:

● Small-scale:​ These projects can range from infill developments being re-greened into
pocket gardens, as is done in several places in the U.S., to traditional homes or
townhouses being partially reused into museums or shops, as seen in Yemen - and will
be discussed later on - and so forth.

● Large-scale:​ Large scale adaptive reuse can be fitting labels for strip malls, large
single-floor shopping malls, and the redesign of entire corridors/streets, among other
types of projects.

One such example is the Food Lion grocery store on Locust St., Denton, Texas, that was
eventually reused into the North Branch Public Library, in 2003.

An example of a corridor being adaptively reused is Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City,
CA, which was part of a governmental program. The Drive has seen multiple projects
adaptively reused, including a pavilion, a museum, and an educational center - all with
social and economic success.

Adaptive reuse can also be applied, within the city, in:

● Urban neighborhoods:​ the reason for redevelopment of buildings in the core of the city,
or in other, previously well-developed neighborhoods, is to ​regain ​required density in the
city. This is because, since buildings are uninhabited, population density is reduced in
various areas.
 ● Suburban neighborhoods:​ the reason for redevelopment of buildings in the fringes, or
suburbs, of the city, is not only to ​regain, ​but also ​increase ​required density in the city.
This is because, since buildings in these areas are uninhabited, population density is
reduced in various areas. The focus for increasing is because suburbs have a generally
lower density than urban neighborhoods in the first place.

For the purpose of this study, we will be going through cases by scale, with a few large-scale
projects, and focusing more on small-scale projects. This is so as to be able to apply certain
methods learned in this literature review, into the case studies later on in this paper.
NORTH AMERICA & CANADA

LA’s regeneration program

The reason this program was founded was because the government began to
understand the different methods to reduce costs in the way of socioeconomic and
environmental standing, while realizing the potential of regeneration and how that could
in fact bring in revenue from those same standings.

Abandoned commercial buildings became the structure of choice to adaptively reuse, as

the changing times of architecture, urban fabric and developments, lead to this typology
being outdated, and eventually in disuse. Therefore, it was the reuse of strip malls from
earlier decades, and similar buildings, that became a target strategy to implement for
urban regeneration. These structures are capable of holding a plethora of functions
simultaneously - the numerous booths and shops in the plan of these buildings are able
to be re-partitioned into restaurants, galleries, libraries, and the like.

For the LA program, buildings were reused into residential units. This residential
regeneration of downtown LA has been a large-scale governmental project, constantly
in the works since the 1960s. With the way this venture has dealt with building policy and
selective criteria for choosing which buildings to adaptively reused, this program has
taken exemplary, foundational steps in how to adaptively reuse across the globe.

The type of building reused was, as previously mentioned, mostly commercial, and
changed into residential units, due to the lack of residential units in areas of interest
within the program. Love’s paper also studied how effective the program’s outcomes
were, in terms of sustainability, urban regeneration and commercial viability.

Fig 1.1 ​The figure above shows some of the candidate buildings for housing conversion that were put
forward.​[15]
One of the important steps towards beginning this process is to standardize criteria for
selecting which buildings are both eligible and capable for reuse. The criteria included:

● the version of building code upon which the structure was built,
● the time before which the building was built,
● whether or not the building is economically viable within its current usage,
● whether or not the building had historical importance.

Another reality that needed to be faced was that the housing provided was initially
mostly aimed at middle to higher income members. ‘Hotel-dwellers’, or people without a
stable income or lifestyle who could not afford a middle-income residential unit and
therefore circulated between hotels to survive, did not have a place in the program at
first. However, due to different efforts of different developers, as well as campaigns run
by members of the community, the hotels did eventually get sold to property dealers.
These dealers then worked on plans and strategizing to be able to house lower income
residents with either affordable units, or simply better, revitalized hotel living.​[16]

Once the buildings were undergoing the process of restructuring and repartitioning, a
new occurrence arose - the adaptation of building codes for this new typology of building
(reused, from one function to a residential one) and, thereby an introduction of flexibility
into the standard building code. The following is a table showing how some of these
differences between original and residential functions were dealt with:

Table 1.1 ​Regulations for adaptive reuse projects in the down LA incentive area. Peter Love.​[17]
The success of this program allowed for progression to the rest of Los Angeles -
spanning districts such as Hollywood, Chinatown, among others. Part of this success
can be attributed to the incentives the government took on, to encourage proprietors and
other stakeholders in the construction industry.

Some of the incentives included:

● A range of percentage tax credit that went into the rehabilitations when dealing
with different building typologies - from historic buildings to non-historical and
non-residential;
● Facade easement resulting in tax deduction if a conservation easement was
secured by the property owner;
● An act, Mills Act, which was passed in order to provide tax relief for historic
properties for continued preservation;
● Tax credit for developers who were dealing with residential properties.

Details available for the reuse that occurred on one of the office buildings to be adapted
into residential units included: an extension towards the west facade, causing different
levels in the interior. This adds dynamism to the interior, and allows for additions for
toilets to every floor. The north facade, on the other hand, introduces new toilets, which
are not aligned with the facade of the building openings, allowing for appropriate privacy.
The vertical structure was also extended, and the staircases were relocated to allow
access to the extra levels created by the extension of the facades mentioned above.

As opposed to the issues that LA was facing in all the “economically distressed”​[18]
districts of the buildings that were adaptively reused, the results seemed not only
positive as expected to the degree expected, but some areas were even more
successful than planned.

The main goal - revitalization of the downtown area - was of course realized. The
introduction of residential units such as apartments, live/work units and other facilities
that serve visitors ensured that density of the community increased. With this increase in
residential units, also came an increasingly balanced proportion of space dedicated to
housing and space dedicated to jobs/work per area. A new live/work community was
introduced to many neighborhoods, and by reducing the distance between employees’
housing and their jobs, vehicle dependency was reduced, leading to cleaner air in these
districts. Architectural preservation was also accomplished.

The goals of the program were to “...​improve quality of life, revive neighbourhoods,
enhance economic growth, empower community action and involvement, maintain
heritage assets, reduce resource consumption, avoid negative environmental impacts,
 avoid urban sprawl, maintain cultural heritage and accommodate human needs and
aspirations...”[19]
​

When faced with the results of the program, it was seen that economic growth of the
revitalized neighborhoods actually superseded the calculated expectations, with property
values going up due to high demand, and reductions in vacancy rates. One-bedroom
residential units saw a 135% increase in land rates, while the entirety of Downtown
Centre property increased by 43.55% over the 7 years of redevelopment.

The program succeeded in meeting other, less directly tangible objectives - community
involvement was increased in the revitalisation of the neighborhoods, and residents
confirmed an improved quality of life, while it was observed that negative environmental
impact was reduced. Revitalisation also introduced new types of developments - mixed
income housing opportunities, as well as different types of venues - food and beverage,
cultural, retail, and entertainment - that brightened community life, introducing people to
more engaging ‘third places’.

Table 1.2 ​The criteria and goals established by the program in order to achieve a certain level of sustainability in the revitalization of
​
downtown LA. [20]
Oregon’s Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center

Located in Portland, Oregon, the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center was reused from a
warehouse of historic importance, built in 1895, into a mixed-use structure, hosting
functions of offices and retail.

The project has been noted to be “reflective of the renewed emphasis in the U.S. toward
energy and resource conservation,” and cost $12.5 million for the redevelopment.​ ​The
district in which this building is located is in a part of the Pearl District. Although the
district is booming now, it once stood as a “deteriorating district of rail yards and
warehouses.” [21]
​

The reason the two-storey warehouse property, was eventually chosen by the
redeveloper, Ecotrust, was due to its strategic location in the district - it had close access
to bike trails, public transit, and a large expanse of space, upwards of 50,000 square feet
in a historic building. Redeveloping it would preserve the outward facade of historic
importance, while also introducing activities that would bring the community together in
new ways, generate revenue, all at an easily bikeable distance, and reachable by cheap,
environmentally friendly public transit.

The architects hired to design the adaptive reuse of the warehouse were Holst
Architecture, in consultancy with Green Building Services, to achieve LEED, and
development was completed by 2001. By 2002, the now-Vollum Center became one of
the first buildings in Western USA to obtain a Gold LEED rating. Sustainable
implementations in the building consisted of conservation of water and energy, as well
as cutting down on waste by recycling. The reuse of an existing structure, of course, is
not to be overlooked, either.

The failings of the warehouse at its time of initiation into reuse were, namely, settling, dry
rot, and a lack of seismic reinforcement.​[22]​ Since the design by Holst required an
exposed interior, the challenges of slight structural change and of considerable seismic
reinforcement amounted to being the most costly portion of the project, rounding up to
almost 1/6​th​ of the entire budget. The exposed interior of Holst was part of a four-headed
design approach towards sustainability, consisting of:

1. increasing social equity in the district,

2. Conserving water,
3. Letting in light, and
4. Refined air.
In order to accomplish these goals, one of the main design features was to introduce an
atrium. This, among other large spaces in the warehouse, allowed for gathering spaces
that were open to the public. The design team also used photocell sensors, which
helped control interior lighting, by adjusting the artificial lighting in response to what the
sensors received from the daylit atrium and skylights. The west facade was also altered
to include new glazing, allowing more daylight to enter through and reduce electrical
energy use in the structure.

The goal of conservation of water was achieved by designing the ecoroof in the building,
and bioswales on site. These act as drainage for stormwater runoff, which can then be
treated elsewhere on site before it is used for washing within the building. This results in
95% reclamation of the runoff.

Additionally, the construction team - despite its additional construction (which was still
built with thoughtful choice of either ​dematerialization​, or ​sustainable material​) -
managed to recycle 98% of debris, easily clinching the LEED requirement.

The center now has multiple stakeholders - retail functions, official spaces, as well as
nonprofit tenants, all of who are focused on increasing equity in the district, as well as
improving the environment.
 Georgia’s Stacks Cotton Mill

Located in Atlanta, this complex of cotton mills was constructed in the 1880s and initially
focused on only cotton production. As years went on and technologies and markets
shifted - especially during the World Wars - the mills shifted some of their production to
that of paper bags, canvas goods, and other items, instead. It was finally closed down in
the 1970s, and bought in 1996 to be initiated into redevelopment.

Part of the complex of mills was transformed into the ‘Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts’, with
redevelopment initiated in 1997, while another portion of the complex was transformed
into ‘The Stacks’ in the early 2000s, as for-sale condominiums. The architects of the
redevelopment were Jova Daniels Busby Inc., and the redevelopment cost a total of $50
million.​[23]​ Part of the budget was funded by low income tax credits, due to the
percentage of residential units that are allotted to lower income workers.

Some of the major issues faced by the designer and construction teams were the
weather exposure that the structures had gone through; the structural timber had rotted,
as water had entered the buildings, not to mention the copious amounts of damage due
to fires and vandalism.

Since the complex was on the National Historic Register (due to it being one of the only
standing buildings of Atlanta’s initial industrial typology of architectural design), the
teams had to put in extra work with the redevelopment - the original materials, including
fenestration, finishings and skylights, had to be either repaired, reused or replaced with
extremely similar options, so as to preserve the heritage and identity of the complex.​[24]
As such, progress on the project was done very strategically and carefully, the teams
working on redevelopment a portion at a time on the building, removing old materials
safely where needed and bringing in new materials and applying with precision. Walls
were braced with cranes while removal and replacement of structural elements occurred
- ranging from beams to columns, and even entire parts of floor slabs.

Residents of the Lofts and the Stacks both express satisfaction with their housing and
location, as well as with the community that has formed over the years in the
now-residential complexes, praising its diversity.

In general, it can be seen that industrial buildings are a prime choice for cross-use adaptive
reuse, as they provide a wide array of design possibilities. This is due in part to the vast and
strong structure of this typology - the span of the columns, and large windows, namely, can give
interiors that are large, expansive and naturally lit. There is also the fact that factories, mills and
the like are all built to be durable, with load stresses of many times the amount of load that other
buildings experience, making it convenient to check and surpass building code requirements.
With an ongoing trend of exposed systems/ceilings and so forth, the already-exposed structures
of industrial buildings save further on cost, apart from the usual savings for any adaptive reuse
project due to lack of construction of foundations and so forth.
Iowa’s Redeveloping Elementary & Middle Schools

Council Bluffs, IA, home to the Kirn school, is making strategic plans to initiate
redevelopment of the building.

By retaining the structure, while taking down non-load bearing walls and creating new
partitions, as well as upgrading different building systems, Council Bluffs intends to
improve:

● Security and safety,

● Accessibility,
● Energy efficiency, and
● The learning environment of the school itself.​[25]

Fig 1.2 ​The Kirn Middle School first floor plan with additions, system updates, as well an infill development,
are highlighted.[26]

The school will reorient its interior in order to direct vision clearly from the main entry
points onwards, adding tiers of security as the users progress through the space, with
new vestibules introduced between zones. Signage will also be improved, to ease
accessibility for all users, regardless of whether they are orienting themselves towards
the teacher’s offices, classrooms, or restrooms.

Kirn school had a common complaint by users about a set of steps in front of the
school’s facade that served as a barrier instead of an access point to the main entry.
Therefore, relocation of the main entry is planned, as well as an improvement of drop off
zones, to allow for accessibility and traffic towards the entry and exits.
 Fig. 1.3​ The reconfigured drop-off zones, as well as an additional zone, is shown on this site plan.​[27]

Mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems will be upgraded, improved and replaced
where needed. The lighting system will also be completely revamped, consisting mainly
of LED fixtures. Windows and doors will also be replaced.

Moving onto improvement plans for the learning and teaching experience for students
and teachers alike, natural daylight will be added wherever possible, possibly by adding
windows. Enlarging classrooms and other reconfiguration of spaces may allow for
greater surface area to introduce windows on. The auditorium and lecture halls will have
new partitions/changes that allow for flexible, creative and interesting learning spaces.

The city council is taking in feedback and community participation from teachers,
students and parents alike, making sure that all parties will be satisfied and benefit from
the outcome. There is social media outreach for the program on Twitter and Facebook
with updates, ensuring transparency and encouraging questions and suggestions.
Rhode Island’s Providence Arcade

The Providence Arcade, built in 1828, was the United States’ first indoor shopping mall.
Inspired by the microapartment trend that began in Europe and Asia and eventually
made its way to the American cities of San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, Providence
Arcade was bought by Evan Granoff, a developer looking to popularise this lifestyle to
downtown Providence, Rhode Island.

The designers assigned to the project were Northeast Collaborative Architects, and
renovation began in 2008, to finish in 2013.

One of the challenges faced by both designer and construction teams, was the fact that
the construction methods and structural systems were extremely outdated. (“They just
laid down some flat rocks and started building on top of those—that was the
foundation.”​[28]​) Being originally built two centuries prior, it took time and carefully thought
strategy to maneuver through the difficulties that the building presented them with.

Firstly, the building had settled greatly, so walls had to be supported and reinforced,
which then resulted in uneven contours. This led to the manufacture of bespoke doors
and windows to fit the contours.

For the interior spaces, however, the floor finishings and balustrades were left in place,
and the retail zones on the ground floor were retained. This allows for retail businesses
to run on the ground floor, while 38 apartment spaces take up the upper storeys. The
smaller apartments include bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and storage amenities. There
are also a number of larger apartments, a communal game room and a communal
laundry area.[29] The pictures below show the state of the Providence Arcade originally
as well as today.

Fig. 1.4​ The original Providence Arcade.​[30]​ ​Fig. 1.5​ The Providence Arcade today.​[31]
In order to keep the privacy and quiet of the apartments, the ground floor dedicated to
the retail area is acoustically partitioned off from the upper floors by bay windows,
stopping sound from drifting upwards.

At a total of $7M for redevelopment, the project is regarded a success as the historic
structure is preserved, with the apartment clientele being mainly recent university
students or graduates looking for an affordable, independent space.
Ontario’s Tower Automotive Building

The Tower Automotive building, over 100 years old, and one of the landmarks of the
Toronto skyline, shut down in 2006.​[32​]​ O
​ riginally designed by ​Woodman and Turner, and
completing construction in 1920, the Tower Automotive was one of the first structure in
Toronto which implemented flat slabs with mushroom columns - the latter of which lent
design and structural integrity to the building.

After closing down in 2006, the building status began to wear away, with vandalism
occurring with more frequency across its site and surfaces. Still, it became a popular
spot with photographers, and the artist community put up temporary installations. Its
significance as a typology and one of the unique characteristics of the neighborhood’s
identity remained despite its abandonment.

Fig 1.6 ​The figure above shows the Tower Automotive Building after shutdown, before its redevelopment.​[33]

The building got advocacy from the government, since it is an important building of
significant heritage; the minister of Canadian heritage, Mélanie Joly, encouraged interest
in the building. Once the Museum of Canadian Arts mentioned their plan to relocate to
Tower Automotive in 2015, Joly mentioned that investing in such a move, in the
development of the abandoned building into the MCA, would help increase employment,
while spreading influence and opportunity for local artists in the community. The
government then went on to fund the redevelopment, providing more than $5 million for
the project.

The architects for the redevelopment were architectsAlliance. Their design strategy was
to reveal the original structure of the building, with subtle interventions that would
reinvent the use of the space, but not the space itself. “Our goal,” the firm said, “Was to
preserve the rawness of the space as we first encountered it: the honesty of a functional,
industrial space, with its patina of history and use both cherished and enshrined.”​[34]

Fig 1.6 ​The plan of the fifth floor of MOCA, showing the respect paid towards the columns, and the partitions
that direct circulation throughout the space.​[35]

The MCA now hosts a public meeting hall, temporary spaces, as well as longer-period
exhibition halls, workshops, offices and libraries across the first five floors of the building.
The other five storeys are home to computer based design and assorted creative
pursuits.
 Fig 1.7​ Section through the Tower, showing the different uses throughout the floors [36]
​

However, apart from the interior, the building’s exterior had to be restored as well. For
this, ERA led restoration, and worked together with architectsAlliance to make sure all
interior and exterior design decisions were not only in sync with each other, but also with
the building’s original identity itself. As a result, the columns were not only retained but
also highlighted. ERA added new thermal windows, refurbished the ground floor doors,
and repaired the masonry to a large extent.​[37]
​Fig 1.7​ Showing the exterior of the MCA.​[38]​ ​Fig 1.8​ Showing the MCA interior.​[39]
Washington’s Railroad Station-turned-Courthouse

Fig 1.9​ The Tacoma Courthouse, housed in the old Union Station building. Photographed by Loco Steve.

The advantage of adaptive reuse with respect to new courthouses is that the
government does not necessarily need to fund the construction of a new building. Any
disused building that fits requirements for a courthouse can be redeveloped into its new
use. The cuts down on possibly hundreds of millions of dollars. The public can also
benefit from the reuse - depending on locality of the original building, it could enable
close, pedestrian access for the public

In addition, reusing an abandoned building - perhaps in the slower parts of downtown -

would mean the revitalization of the area downtown; a courthouse would not only attract
foot traffic, but also potential business opportunities. Lawyers, judges, the public who
stay at courthouses for long hours during the day would require food, beverage and
basic amenities in case of emergency at such a large institution. The creation or revival
of such businesses would propagate a positive ripple effect for the rest of the
neighborhood.

An example of such adaptive reuse is the Union Station railway terminal in Tacoma,
Washington. The Union Passenger station opened in 1911 but became gradually
abandoned and finally fell into total disuse by 1984. Meanwhile, in the later half of the
1980s, Tacoma’s court needed to expand beyond its facilities at the time. The court
eventually leased the station in the 1990s.

There were not many structural issues faced in the redevelopment, as the building had
less than a decade to deteriorate before it was reused. The rotunda was renovated into
courtrooms, chambers and offices. A 3-storey extension on the station was built, but
great care was taken to design it in such a way that the aesthetic was complementary to
the original station. The extension hosts additional courtrooms, chambers, offices, as
well as detention facilities

The results of the reuse were overwhelmingly positive: the court managed to save from
its budget due to lack of need for construction of a completely new building. The
community has also benefited from its revitalization, as it revived the downtown area of
Tacoma. Not only is the courthouse Tacoma’s 12th most popular tourist site,​[40]​ but
museums have also cropped up around it because of the increased traffic to the area,
and because of the fulfillment of the need for more institutionally cultural sites downtown.
Texas, home to the largest single-storey public library in the USA

The trend of discount stores expanding and relocating to larger buildings leaves their
original, smaller building empty and disused. This usually does not only visually interrupt
the scene with gradual decay and vandalism, but it also socially interrupts the fabric of
the community, with such spaces often beginning to attract criminal activity.

An issue with such large properties, despite being sold at reduced rates, is that they are
still too expensive for buyers; boxy lots used for grocery stores and old supermarkets
usually end up being bought (if they are bought) by hospitals, for in or outpatient
centers.​[41]

Fig 1.10​ The McAllen Public Library, previously a Walmart, in McAllen, Texas.​[42]

However, in McAllen, Texas, an abandoned Walmart was instead retrofitted into a

library. Due to the considerable volume of the structure, and its large, open spaces, the
McAllen Main Library has become the biggest single-storey public library in the USA.

No specific challenges seem to have arisen - the vast “big box” seemed, instead, to only
provide the architects, MSR, with opportunities.

The changes the library went through were mostly related to its interior design: removing
the finishes of the walls and ceiling; painting over the structures; adding glazes to ensure
daylit spaces; and brightly-colored details to add dynamism into the space.
The spaces are designed with the different user groups in mind - for example, teens
have a lounge of their own, which has walls that are acoustically treated.​[43]

The library now houses computer labs for different users - adults, teenagers and children
- as well as an auditorium for seminar and public events, an art gallery, a bookstore
selling secondhand books, as well as the quintessential cafe.
EUROPE

Netherlands’ Office Building to Housing Conversion

A program in the Netherlands to reuse abandoned office buildings was conceived in

order to provide more housing units for residents. While multiple buildings were
adaptively reused in this program, the report will be focusing on three, as shown
highlighted below.

Table 1.3​ The table above shows the Dutch conversion cases that were successfully completed.​[44]

The redevelopment of these buildings was fast paced - from initial preliminary
design, to completion of construction, the project simply took two years. This is
because redevelopment started simultaneously with design - the building began to
be stripped of most of its structural accessories, including means of vertical
circulation.
 Fig 1.12​ Above is the building De Enk, before (left) and after (right) conversion.​[45]

De Enk.​ This building was chosen for conversion due to its historical significance,
its prime location - near the center of the city, and so within a good distance of
amenities, services, and so forth, as well as the fact that it was cheap to buy.

Fig 1.12 ​Left is the aerial view and plan of the office before conversion, whereas the right shows a view and
plan of the building after being converted into housing.​[46]

Twentec.​ Given that the apartments were being redeveloped for a higher income
bracket, the reuse extended to adapting the facade as well. The facade was given a
makeover, using different materials, along with the addition of balconies in order to
attract the target residents.
 Fig 1.13 ​The left shows the view and plan of the office building before conversion; the middle and right
show views and plans after being converted into housing.​[47]

Granida.​ The location near the city centre and the image of the building were
important success factors for this conversion. The reason this conversion was high
cost was because the facade was altered, and high technicality in the structure had
to be dealt with carefully during conversion.

Still, regardless of the additional costs in individual cases, the total cost of conversion
still turned out to be lower than those for demolition and rebuilding from foundations up.
The varying of conversion costs ranged from the lower bracket being achieved through
very few changes to the facade and with the workings of an adaptable floor plan (these
were usually cases where student housing was the residential use), to the higher bracket
cost because of facade alterations and additions to the structure for more luxurious
residential units.

An argument one finds often - not only in the Netherlands, but in other areas around the
world, as well - is that older buildings should be demolished because they are not as
sustainable as a newer building of today’s times. In light of this, the converted buildings
in this program were studied, to understand whether or not the argument had weight.

It was seen, however, that the buildings’ performances were on par with buildings
constructed today, not only fulfilling criteria in the standard Dutch building code, but also
reaching comfort levels of residents’ expectations.

The process for conversion included assessment of buildings, in order to be able to

budget accordingly and plan for reparation strategies - most problems were met with
prepared methods, although some buildings did have mild issues of concrete
deterioration and steel corrosion overlooked.
When it comes to the actual conversion of these office buildings, the process was both
facilitated and hindered by the actual structure of the office buildings themselves:

● Facilitation:​ As the original typology of these buildings are built to stand loads
many times larger than that of residential typologies, it’s actually possible to add
on more floors to an office building when repurposing it to one for housing.

● Facilitation: ​Depending on the year the original buildings were built, the plans
could be either easy or difficult to adapt - pre-1980s building did not have linear
plans, and therefore created issues with regards to partition placement. However,
buildings after the 1980s were found to be very easy to adapt due to their linear
plans and repetitive column spans.

● Facilitation:​ Offices are built to handle more people per unit area, and therefore
have an excessive amount of lifts for when reused to residential use. Extraneous
elevator shafts can be easily adapted to host HVAC and MEP systems.

● Hindrance:​ However, residential flats required more vertical shafts for individual
units of electricity and plumbing. For buildings that were constructed before 1965,
the placement of shafts, once the penetration of floors was achieved, went on
without problems. An issue did arise with a few buildings in the program that
were built after 1965: change in the type of concrete between pre- and post-1965
in Dutch buildings allowed larger spans and therefore less columns. However,
this type of concrete grew weaker after being cut/penetrated to place the shafts
in. This was dealt with in due time with added reinforcements and cost.

● Hindrance:​ Another issue is that office buildings do not require the amount of
acoustical privacy - as well as the fact that it did not meet the contemporary
building code. Therefore, floating floors and suspended ceilings were added to
the structure - as mentioned before, this would be something the structures were
able to withstand with ease.

● Hindrance:​ While newer office buildings would not face this challenge, the
buildings in the program did face it - the number of emergency stairs were not
enough for contemporary housing, and therefore more stairs needed to be
added.

Despite some of these issues and the expenses that came with them, the projects were
financially feasible.
The results of the conversions of the program in its entirety can be seen in the table
below, and can be concluded to be overall positive and feasible. This conversion project
was not particularly unique in any way, proving that the process, scale of the program
and types of buildings and the specific conversion (official to housing) can be universally
applied, anywhere else in the world, with a predictably similar outcome.

Table 1.4​ The table shows the opportunities defined by the cross-case analysis of the 15 cases.​[48]
Spain’s Port Mahon Naval Hospital

The naval hospital architecture begun in the UK in the 1700s has since spread with the
spread of British rule, across Europe and the USA. Naval hospitals were meant to be
therapeutic architecture, combined with the classical style. The outcome of this
combination “was intended not for the eyes of the sick and wounded, but for those who
survived the rigours of service life and needed a home in their old age.”​[49]​ A shift in style
throughout the centuries was observed: by the 1930s, naval hospitals implemented both
Spanish Revival and Art Deco influences.​[50]

However, once the users - doctors, nurses, servicemen and women, and patients -
rescinded usage in the mid-20​th​ century, different uses and treatments of these naval
hospitals, with their unique histories and their cultural significance, rose to the surface.
Some hospitals were converted for uses that were only in the interest of higher profit,
disregarding the local needs of the community.

Eventually, a handful of organizations have introduced a conversion of hospitals to

universities, while others reused the naval structures as shelters for the homeless,
without much changes both within and without.

A grassroots coalition of Capitol Hill residents in Washington came together to start a

fund for a naval hospital in Port Mahon, Spain. They aimed to bring to the table an
educational center for children and adults alike, as well as a community center. Once the
fund was approved, the residents of Port Mahon began to come in to volunteer the
redevelopment of the building.

The collapsed roof was repaired by hand by some volunteers, tiles fixed back in their
places, while other volunteers opted to plan a herbal garden. Another group went to
work to clean the chemical residue still left behind by the hospital’s past.

For the reuse, British Ministries provided a masterplan, which were then revised by local
community stakeholders.
AUSTRALIA
Woolstores of Brisbane, Victoria and Tasmania.

A riverfront in Australia houses different woolstores of cultural significance, located in

different neighborhoods. Three of these precedents of adaptive reuse, converted so as
to accomplish higher density, better energy efficiency, and as a cheaper option that new
build, will be seen in further detail:

1. Queensland Primary producers No, 4 Woolstore in Tenerife, Brisbane;

2. Dalgety's Woolstores in Geelong City, Victoria; and,
3. The Old Woolstore Apartments and Hotel, Tasmania.

The woolstore typology was initially a three storey brick and timber warehouse,
constructed during the 1930s​[51]​. Since the very feasibility of the industry of wool making
in Australia has been slowly but surely challenged, abandoned woolstores can be seen
today.

Challenges faced in the conversion of this kind of typology include navigating around the
structural system - the timber grid system is not necessarily conducive to apartment
building codes, even with reuse flexibility; the fenestration, too, is not enough, and
introducing more may either compromise on structural integrity, or overstep rules set by
facades that are protected by heritage acts.

The solutions to these would be to take the reuse process portion by portion,
demolishing part of the structural system and reinforcing or reconstructing it. Regarding
windows, designs can lean on borrowed light within certain interior spaces, in instances
where facades are meant to be kept intact.

Queensland Primary No, 4 Woolstore, Teneriffe, Brisbane

While keeping the same materials as untouched and original as possible, there
are some cases where changes must be made. This occurred with the
Queensland project, where the multicolored bricks were unable to be completely
saved. Therefore, similar materials were sourced when reconstructing.

The woolstore originally consisted of two storeys, but a third storey was added in
the adaptive reuse. The materials for the third floor do not match the first and
second - the original storeys joints were constructed with joists and beams. For
the third storey now, however, Oregon Pine is being used.

The reuse has converted the woolstore into mixed-use, with the ground and first
floors having been changed into offices. Apartments are on the last floor, set
 back from the road border below in order to give precedence to the path’s historic
importance.

The building has a courtyard introduced into it, which allows the deep plan to
have access to light that spreads around the places in the building where light
would otherwise not reach.

The result of such conversion has led to renewed economic life and activity in the
Tenerife district. With new residents, comes new clientele, and so need for new
needs to be fulfilled where there were no residents before. Combined with the
nearby public transit stop, the district began to attract new ‘third’ places - coffee
shops have begun to pop up, especially in the storefronts of many other reused
woolstores as well, giving the streets and people new destinations and moments
of experience.

Dalgety's Woolstores in Geelong City, Victoria

The Department of Planning set out rules for what should and should not be kept
throughout any possible conversion of the Dalgety’s woolstore. The list they set
out of what should be preserved was as follows:

● Window and door lintels,

● Pipes in the roof, for rainwater
● External walls of red brick
● Parapet walls
● The sign that proclaimed, ‘​Dalgety Company Limited​’

Eventually, Deakin University moved to repurpose the woolstore to include it in its

campus. MacGlashan Everist ended up being the architects of this conversion,
and the design laid out took into consideration the factors of:

1. Urban connection,
2. Connection between old and new (structure)
3. Higher academic typology

The challenges faced by this Victoria woolstore are similar to those of the
Brisbane one, namely:

● Structural arrangement and integrity, and

● The deep plan vs. lack of ability to add fenestration.
 Since reuse of the woolstore meant fulfilling the above mentioned requirement of
retaining the brick exterior to the maximum extent, and there was no means of
adding fenestration with this requirement, an atrium was the next choice - a void
which would open up the volume of the building, connect spaces and provide
daylight.

The original building construction included 4 storeys - the new design will
preserve all storeys in some areas of the building, while removing 3 floors in
some areas (this will allow an atrium to be formed). Structurally, this was
accomplished by removing the three lower floors, while the top floor was used as
scaffolding for roof refurbishment.​[52]

The results of the conversion of the Dalgety woolstores resemble those of the
Tenerife conversion; life has been breathed back into the part of the city that was
being neglected before. With new clientele in the district, more social and
economic growth has occurred along the waterfront where the woolstore resides.

The Old Woolstore Apartments and Hotel, Tasmania

This particular woolstore in Tasmania itself has a history of internal adaptation -

initially built in the 19​th​ century as shanty housing, it was converted to wool
manufacture and treatment in the 20​th​ century, and went on to be used for
different agricultural uses as well.

In addition to the list of what was supposed to be kept intact for the other 2
buildings, the woolstore in Tasmania was also required to keep its double doors,
as they were of a unique design.

A difference between the other conversions discussed in Australia, and this one,
is that the roof already had skylights, and so no refurbishment or removal of
floors were needed, since natural light was already entering the spaces through
the original design.

It can be seen that in each of these adaptive reuses of woolstores on waterfronts

in Australia, economic value has been added - not only to the buildings
themselves, but also their surrounding districts. Additionally, it was attempted and
(succeeded) to conserve the exterior as much as possible. The structure was
also kept relatively intact with regards to the span, beams and so forth. This
leads to the conclusion that simply changing the primary use of a building can
reinvent the social and economical life of an entire neighborhood, improving the
quality of several lives, and providing many new job opportunities for people.
AFRICA

Morocco’s rehabilitated city

Classified as a world heritage site in 1981, Morocco’s cultural and spiritual center hosts
over 500 urban facilities, more than 8,000 historic houses, as well as 5600 handicraft
activities with guilds amounting to a total of more than 30,000 craftsmen.

The city’s urban fabric, surprisingly, has not seen much change since its heyday. The
problems it does face consist of overpopulation, and the resulting deterioration of its
buildings. Although the city’s surroundings are off limits to new construction, the land is
still vulnerable as there is always some form of ‘uncontrolled urban development’
ongoing.​[53]

Unlike in former precedents in the Western continents, where the dilapidation of urban
cores occurred due to expansion of the city and resultant desertion of the core, in Fez, it
was the influx of new residents into the core, resulting in overpopulation, which is what
endangered its structures and the integrity of the urban fabric.

Together with traffic issues, and deteriorating water and sewage systems, the city began
to experience an almost domino effect of deterioration.

By the time Fez entered the 1970s, its problems were realized by people around the
world, and frantic brainstorming ensured in order to turn this situation around. Since
assigning this entire city as a frozen moment, in a city-wide museum exhibit, was
impractical and against the intention of letting Fez thrive and stay alive as it always has,
another method had to be found. Eventually, a city-wide rehabilitation was proposed,
composed of individual building rehabilitation projects.

As such, Fez saw over 120 individual buildings rehabilitated, as well as the
implementation of over 100 interventions, with communal help and investment. Public
spaces were created from the evacuation of 16 plots of deteriorating buildings. Over 50
housing units on the brink of collapse have been repaired, and 2 original public spaces
of historical importance were restored. These instances resulted in the generation of
1,000 jobs.

Although this project is on a large, city-wide scale, there is still no doubt that adaptive
reuse can have a tremendously positive effect when implemented with care and
consideration of all stakeholders (including the environment).

As Boussaa states, “some general guidelines can be outlined that might be relevant to
enable a sustainable future of the historic centers in North Africa and the Arab world:
● Respect community life, with specific emphasis on the local values and traditions;
● Improve the quality of life for the local inhabitants;
● Maintain identity, diversity and vitality;
● Minimize the loss of non-renewable heritage assets such as the built heritage;
● Involve different actors from both the public and private sectors in conservation;
● Empower community action and responsibility through participation;
● A bottom up versus a top down approach is needed to involve the community;
● Gentrification, segregation and authenticity issues should be taken into
consideration when applying sustainable development in the historic city.​[54]
ASIA

Yemen’s Tower House Reuse

Once Sana’a became a UNESCO heritage site, adaptive reuse and conservation have
become more popular, among both government and private bodies. However,
government bodies are not sufficiently funded, and can only take on a handful of projects
at a time with no guarantee of fast, efficient completion. In contrast, private ownership
sees more successful, speedy activity.

Private ownership adaptive reuse has a variety of outcomes, given that each project’s
reuse function, aesthetic and reparation methods rely solely on the owner themselves
and therefore differ from case to case. The government’s jurisdiction in private adaptive
reuse only extends towards approval of reuse and control over the conservation portion
of reuse.

The government has issued an official manual of guidance on conservation methods and
strategies to apply; it is not widely spread, however, so private owners do not use or
refer to it (except for some very basic rulings), and there is no enforced penalty for not
following the manual to push private owners towards using it more.

As such, private owners have their own to reuse their tower houses, either by:

● Completely reusing all floors, or

● Only reusing the ground floor.

Popular choices for the reuse function are:

● Art galleries, hotels, and/or cultural houses (in case the whole tower house is
being rehabilitated), or
● Grocery stores, or other service/facility-providing spaces (in case only the ground
floor is being reused).

One of the basic rulings previously mentioned that private owners make attempts to
follow is the conservation of the house’s exterior facade. However, it is not always
followed; more and more private owners are going about reparation and material
replacement according to their own tastes. This has resulted in a merging of the new and
eccentric, with the old architectural traditions. The trend is not looked at kindly by many,
but it is possible to view this change as the emergence of a new culture, brought on by
new context and circumstances, and an eclectic aesthetic.
The precedent looked at in Yemen is a tower house turned hotel, named Dawood Hotel.
It faces a plantation garden and is six storeys high.

Fig 1.14​ Street view of the Dawood Hotel now that it’s successfully adaptively reused.​[55]

Before any design or other work of consideration could take place, an analysis of both
the building and the site must be carried out. The reason for this careful observation is to
better understand to what extent the building is able to be reused, and what function
would fit the reuse best. Previous successful precedents are also presented by CATS
(Center for Architectural Training and Research Studies).

As such, the analyses are shown as below:

Table 1.5​ Categories of damages of the tower houses in the old city of Sana’a (1984).​[56]
 Fig 1.15​ Map on the case study location, routes, surroundings, and site zoning.​[57]

The analysis of the building showed that the building had been undergoing continual
upgrades through different decades, with its origin dating back to 250 years. The first 2
floors seem to be the original building, with the rest of the floors being added within the
past 30 years.

Fig 1.16​ Pointing out the different levels that make up the building.​[58]

The reused Dawood hotel has many additions today - more than before, with additional
toilets constructed on every floor. The intereios have gone through 2 changes:

1. Original space have remained untouched, and were only given new functions, or
 2. Spaces have been redistributed to new functions, with new partition walls.

Today, Dawood Hotel sees tourist and commercial success.

Overall, despite the lack of government supervision and identity conservation, these
reuses are first and foremost enabling hard-put families a source of income, as well as
generating jobs and creating a new kind of architectural culture, which can all be
recognized as positive results.
Jordan, Electricity to Art

Amman’s Electricity Hangar of the 1930s was adaptively reused in 2010, in a move to
allow for more inclusive public spaces in the city, with less negative environmental
impact.

Figure 1.17​ The Hangar before renovation. Photographed by Rami Daher.

The designers, a local firm called Turath, focused on clearing the space as mucha s
possible with little to no additional overt interventions. With the structural systems clear
in view and walls painted over in white, the focus of the new usage of this space is
maximum flexibility for a range of public, art-related events.

The facade of the building, on the other hand, has been remade of glass, ensuring total
transparency and allowing both outsiders and users inside the building to visually
connect. The transparency also allows for the Hangar to glow at night like a ‘temple of
electricity’.​[59]

Fig 1.18 ​The renovated Hangar in the day and at night. Photographed by Rami Daher.
There is also an additional building built upon an infill development, as a complementary
structure to the Hangar: where the Hangar has events only, the new building, ​Ras al Ein
Gallery, hosts workshops and lectures on art.

Fig 1.19 ​Elevation drawing of both buildings with context.​[60]

Fig 1.20 ​Street view photograph showing both buildings. Photographed by Rami Daher.

The project has had a positive outcome so far, with popular talks and events that have
been covered by national media in appreciative light. It has given an engaging and
inclusive ‘third place’ to an otherwise densely packed residential area. It has also
reduced the harmful environmental effects of the building that used to be in the plot
before ​Ras al Ein,​ by treating the land and building over it.
Palestine, Khan al Wakalah Restoration and Reuse

The Khan of Nablus, built in the 17​th​ century, was essentially an urban warehouse at the
edge of the city souq. It included stables, its own bazaar, and, on the upper floors,
housing spaces for travelers and merchants - usually they were on their way from
Damascus, going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Madinah, or Makkah.

Fig 1.21​ A picture of the Khaan before it deteriorated.

Here is the courtyard with merchants’ rides roaming.[61]

The Khan has since deteriorated with age, with only the main facade still standing. The
facade - before renovation - hosted several small shops that had no structural
connection to the Khaan itself.

Once the EU, UNESCO and the Municipality of Nablus agreed to restore the Khan in
2000, a local university was chosen to coordinate the rehabilitation with the parties
involved. Apart from restoration, the goals were to add new functions to the original
uses: a restaurant, civic hall, museum, a hotel, and shops and offices for commercial
use.

Fig 1.22​ The photograph shows the main facade before renovation, as the only facade still standing.​[62]
The design of a new courtyard and the interior detailed design of doors, windows, and
flooring was assigned to Davide Pagliarini, an Italian architect, who introduced a touch of
contemporary by replacing the dilapidated gates with sleek new dark iron gates, which
contrasted with the cool-toned cream shades of Nablus stone. The shops have also
been renovated.​[63]

Totaling to a budget of €2.5 million​[64]​, this restoration and reuse has most definitely
achieved positive outcomes. A ‘yard school’ had been established during the period of
renovation, training youth in the art of Nablus stonework and other handicrafts (Nablus’
famous olive oil soap, traditional embroidery) used to help restore the Khaan and set it
up for business.

Popularity, tourism and cultural service provision have led to the project’s success,
encouraging the neighborhood’s economic and social growth for the community.

Fig 1.23​ A view of the renovated Khaan Al Wakalah, from the restaurant’s vantage point.​[65]
DISCUSSION

Carving through slabs to create atriums, adding fenestration where it won’t interrupt the
structural system, adding floating floors and reinforcing beams and columns that are slowly
failing - among other strategies, are known to be employed in the adaptive reuse of buildings.
While this accomplishes added access to natural daylight, increased density of the volume
and/or strengthened structure - along with other, positive aspects to the design of a project, it
can also be seen that the new type and use of occupation affects the community in different
ways, at times either environmentally, economically and socially.

Environmentally, the introduction of a new space that has replaced an older one - while taking
up the exact same geographical location, area and volume - without spending energy,
resources and creating a carbon footprint in razing the old space down and then building the
new one up - saves on an enormous amount of resources.

Economically, taking up an abandoned space with a function specifically design to attract

people, or to fulfill a need of the people in the area - the success of this function, attraction, and
need-fulfillment creates a social space where more and more people come in, spend and earn
money, get jobs, and return to often to keep revenue steady and growing.

Socially, as well, creating these positive markers in places that were disused or about to be
demolished - helps with the health of the community. With people woven together into a fabric
themselves, within the urban fabric of the city, a hole of disuse in the city has often led to a hole
in the community; lack of identity or pride with a place leads to further disuse, widening the
urban hole as well, which can lead to hubs of crime and violence. Filling up this rent in the urban
fabric with a brand new place - a place that resides in the exact place as the disused building, a
place that creates excitement and improves the quality of life and brings back identity to a
neighborhood, that reduces the possibility of crime in the area - results in increasing the
strength of the communal fabric as well.

In this section, different methods and strategies used to adaptively reuse these buildings
covered thus far, will be summarized and condensed, so as to be able to systematically apply
them in an approach, on case studies that will be seen later on in the report.

Operations & policy​ Criteria/policies that may be in place to identify/classify buildings

as able to be adaptively reused. A widely applicable policy is ​The Secretary of Interior’s
Standards for Rehabilitation​, which is detailed in the Appendix.

Within/across-use​ While this is not mentioned in most precedents, it is a step that holds
importance in strategy - one that takes in the socioeconomic contexts of the building.
Who could be the next occupants of this building? Who were the previous ones? Should
the use continue with this reuse, or should the use shift to another field? These
questions are answered by who may be a promising bracket or hold in the market, what
they could be looking for that may not be provided satisfactorily to them yet, and so forth.

Structural analysis​ By analysing the structure of a building, it helps to see what kind of
loads the building could bear, which would then narrow down the options of what
different/new/adapted functions the reused building could provide. It also hits upon
snags that may hold up construction or increase the budget, and allow the team to either
maneuver around such an issue, or solve it head on.​[66]

Obsolescence​ Related to the previous point, it must be checked whether or not the
structure of the system can live up to the standard building code requirements of the new
use planned. This can either lead to a total change of new use, or a strategy to
overcome this obstacle.​[67]​ An example of this was seen in the Netherlands’ example of
office buildings being converted into residential units - buildings before the 1980s were
more difficult to adapt to housing repartitioning, given the structural rhythms of the time.

Lighting​ Oftentimes the lighting requirements for different uses differ vastly - turning a
warehouse with sparse windows that ran mostly on electrical lighting in the early 1900s
into, for example, a kindergarten, will not be sustainably accommodating to the users
and designers of today, without any alterations to the building. Therefore, attention must
be paid to understand how natural daylight can be introduced into spaces, what quality
this light would be, what changes may have to be made to the space to achieve this
desired effect, and how those changes may affect the structure of the building.

Privacy​ Privacy is also something to perceive and design for sensitively - different
typologies may require different levels of privacy. A hospital being converted into a
university, for example, would require around the same amount of noise barriers
between wards/classrooms, as well as the same amount of openness and connectivity to
the rest of the hospital/university. However, converting a large warehouse into stacked
condominiums would require more effort - acoustic barriers would have to be installed,
perhaps with heavier partition walls, and false ceilings added to increase the amount of
insulation sound would have to travel through between the floors of different tenants.

Dynamism​ Adaptive reuse most definitely - even in the case of buildings that are not
historically important - have an element of conservation, as well as innovation. A
question to be asked when considering a building for a new design once it has been
approved for reuse, is, what about this facade, or interior space, is unique? How can this
be kept, to preserve the identity of this place while simultaneously evolving it into
something new? This has been seen in Providence Arcade, in the Tacoma courthouse,
in the reuse of historic houses into hotels - even when there is new construction that is
an extension to what is being reused - a structure’s identity is, in a sense, its dignity, and
the dignity of its users. Erasing that, unless in cases of impossibility of access, or some
 such issue, does not improve anything - but keeping it, preserves and further grows the
identity of both place and person.

Dynamism can also be introduced. The creation of an atrium is the addition of dynamism
- the floors in Australia’s woolstores were not necessarily something unique to the design
of the building, and so were removed (and materials reused elsewhere in the project)
easily, in order to create atriums of double to triple height, creating a vantagepoint to
appreciate the building’s interior from, flooding the space with daylight, and allowing
people to mingle comfortably in a space that gives an impression of comfort, grandeur
and stability.

Project profiling​ Throughout this process of analysis and design planning, a project
profile should be assembled, considering not only the project, but also its context, an
analysis of the site, what possible client markets around the area could be interested in,
if there are any public transit or other mainline routes nearby that would enable a larger
amount of people to access the project and increase the socioeconomic value of the
area or not, and so forth. Keeping these and perhaps other pointers on the record for
constant reference, can continue to help shape the project until the end.​[68]

There are, of course, other ways to understand, analyse and profile projects for adaptive reuse -
other examples would be to see what social effects the building has had, and how society has
affected the building in turn; or, pinpointing different elements of the building on a basis of pure
design, to see what could or could not be taken apart and put together again for a new space, or
a new function, or both; or, understanding how the building was shaped by politics - the style of
an era, and how appropriate would it be to change certain elements, or to keep some, to make
way for a new political era, or to make way for a society with different causes and values.
EXPERT OPINIONS

Ellen Dunham-Jones,​ architectural educator and co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia, one

of the most influential urbanists of all time​[69]​, is a leader in the topics of retrofit,
redevelopment and adaptive reuse. Her focus is mostly on suburban redevelopment,
and the hybridization of old, classically suburban American structures with new, urban
activities, to best meet the changing needs of different groups of users living in the
suburbs. She does not limit herself to a certain scale of adaptive reuse - she is eager
and invested in the reuse of buildings, street fronts and entire districts.

She believes that ​TOD​ should be intrinsically linked with all development - new, or
redevelopment - but especially with regards to the ever growing far-flung suburbia. TOD
is what can sustainably and affordably connect users from different backgrounds and
social accessibility levels, to the spaces architects create to meet their specific needs.

Ellen also encourages - apart from reuse, where a building simply redefines what it holds
within - infill development. These abandoned parking lots, areas of asphalt no longer in
use and just as empty as their building counterparts are also just as feasible to build on.

Peter Love, ​John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Infrastructure and Engineering

Informatics at Curtin University, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and
a Chartered Building Professional, is an advocate of adaptive reuse as well but his focus
is more on the technicality of analysis and choice. What makes a building ideal for
adaptive reuse? How could a certain typology of building be better adapted? These are
the kinds of questions he seeks to answer.

His overall stance appears to be one advocating the awareness of possibility and
opportunity that adaptive reuse can present; his response to survey results (obtained in
research) which express doubt towards the viability of adaptive reuse shows as much.

Sheila Ireland,​ senior architect and LEED AP, among other achievements, is another
expert. She holds a stalwart stance on adaptive reuse. When asked about whether
historic buildings are more or less desirable to deal with as a designer, given the
restrictions applied on such projects, she replied that, design-wise, the restrictions of
historic and non-historic building redesign are quite similar.

She appreciates the value of historic features, and looks forward to navigating through to
the optimum strategy of treatment in terms of design. She believes in the specific
characteristics of each and every space that set it apart from all other spaces.[70]
Lina Bo Bardi, ​(1914-1992), a modernist Italian architect born in Italy, is considered to
have been one of the earliest practitioners of adaptive reuse and sustainable
architecture in the past century, with over 10 adaptive reuse projects (restoration,
renovation, building upcycling) in her collection of work.

To her, everyday ‘common’ buildings were just as worthy of preservation as the

historical, classical buildings of the Renaissance past. She famously remarked, upon
entering a factory in 1978, “What we want is precisely to maintain and amplify what we
have found here, nothing more.”

She argued to preserve the details and styles of the ordinary building, no matter how
brutally functional and far removed from beauty.

“‘To violate an era by embalming it in plaster means ignoring the fatigued and painful
process of humanity.”​[70]
CASE STUDIES

Current Local Urban Outlook

Saudi Arabia: the country

Adaptive reuse and restoration is not an unheard of concept in the Kingdom. With the
goals of Vision 2030, as well as the growing need of shifting the country’s economy from
primarily petroleum-based to an economy that is more balanced in its sources and
services provided, avenues in tourism, cultural importance, and national history and
identity are being explored with new zeal.

However, not only are adaptive reuse and restoration not unheard of, but they are not
new to the Kingdom either. One adaptive reuse conversion is popular enough to be
spotted far and wide across the country: the conversion of homes and villas to school
buildings. The government stated that public school buildings will no longer lease villas
and other residential complexes out for their purpose after 2011.​[71]​ Private schools,
however, may still continue the practise.

Another example is public clinics - 85% of public clinics (circa 2007)​[72] ​are rented and
converted houses.

Adaptive reuse in the Kingdom can be put to fulfilling one of two possible needs:

1. Economic gain:​ Homes are typically cheaper to rent out for schools, clinics and
police stations, than to construct these typologies from the ground up.
Additionally, the desertion of old residential neighborhoods for suburbs or other,
more trendy areas, leaves these neighborhoods open to renting and partial
rehabilitation. This can encourage shops to move into the neighborhood, bringing
back some clientele, and slowly convert the residential neighborhood into a
mixed use one, instead.

2. Identity preservation:​ The SCTA (Supreme Commission for Tourism and

Antiquity) and SSHP (Saudi Society for Heritage Preservation) have set out plans
to convert (while preserving) different sites and structures.

a. The town of ​Awamiya​, for example, once a site of violence between

small-scale mobs and other criminals, has now been successfully
rehabilitated, by locals and specialists, alike into a tourist-worthy village.
Picture perfect, preserving the ancient architecture while introducing new
structures to bring the urban fabric together and facilitate visitors.​[73]
 b. Ushaiger, f​ or instance, was one of the first old towns of Saudi Arabia to
be rehabilitated for the Saudi preservation effort, ready for visitors in the
beginning of 2018. Made primarily of mud houses, 25 mosques, and a
large, grand, village gate, Ushaiger is now a popular tourist spot, with the
old houses renovated and open for touring, as well as a museum to
visit.​[74]

While considering the government and private initiatives in the Kingdom, it should be
said that grassroots community members have relative autonomy as well. Community
members of Rujaal Almaa gathered together to create the ​Rujaal Company, Ltd.​,
consisting of 120 concerned citizens. By extending their network to bigger organizations
in the country, such as the museums, and investments from large national bodies, the
company succeeded in saving its fast-dilapidating village, as well as supporting other
villages in their similar causes.​[75]

It can be said, then, that while extremely active measures are not being currently taken,
on average, across the country, the social and official environments are still conducive to
sustainable, adaptive reuse strategies.

Still, it is worth noting, that the reuse of disused buildings is not as popular as it could be,
given the frequency of these buildings in the urban fabric of different large cities across
the country.

Riyadh: the city

The concept of sustainability is cropping up more and more in everyday conversation -

from government programs such as Qatrah and Riyadh Air, to food outlets providing
takeaway options without plastic cutlery, to carpool options on ride apps such as Careem
and Uber. RetrofitTech has been having nationwide conferences in Riyadh for the past
five years, and consultancy and research firms based on sustainability are opening with
more frequency. The Tarshid firm has successfully retrofitted the SASO’s headquarters,
and is currently undergoing various university campus retrofits across the city. And yet -
adaptive reuse is not a topic that’s widely talked about.

In fact, when asked, Saudi Arabia’s various municipalities do not consider adaptive
reuse to be an important topic to keep track of and save data on, or even be aware of
what new uses the buildings are being put to.​[76]

Upon viewing different districts in the city, however, it can be seen that there are many
structures that are deteriorating, crumbling, about to be demolished, abandoned, or in
similar states. So the adaptive reuse that is taking place is still not enough to heal these
holes in the urban fabric. Fieldwork has shown the districts of Malaz, Wizarat, Batha,
Olayya - initial cores of the city that sprawled organically and were then slowly left for
other districts - to have a high frequency of disused buildings, ranging from old shopping
center complexes, to apartment buildings, closed down schools, and so forth.

Questioning this state led to the need to question different local experts in the field.

While various individuals, such as Arch. Haifa Alfutiman and Eng. Nasser of the Riyadh
Municipality; as well as Noor Tayeh, MAR and LEED AP ND; Mr. Ahmed Aloteischan,
the TOD PM, at the Royal Commission of Riyadh City, all agree on the need for adaptive
reuse throughout the city, and are aware of the various sites strewn across the city that
deserve a second chance with the potential they have to revitalize their urban centers.
Any adaptive reuse projects to their knowledge regarding the upcycling of a disused
building are few and far between, and mostly within-use adaptive reuse, on apartment
buildings.

Another question then arises: when several members of the region’s largest
developmental establishments champion adaptive reuse, then why is there such a lack
of adaptive reuse projects in Riyadh, the metropolitan capital of the Kingdom?

The census of different officials’ opinions regarding the barriers the city faces when it
comes to adaptive reuse are as follows:

Design Barriers

o The difficulty of maintaining the structural integrity of older buildings.

o The lack of available matching materials for old buildings.
o Matching the old building to new contemporary demands in terms of
services and systems including the difficulties of installation and
upgrading.
o Improper choice of the new function.
o Missing drawings of the old existing buildings.
o The limited possibility of the exploitation of the existing site.​[77]

When it comes to new construction - especially new, PIF-backed projects that run
extremely with ambition and starchitect design competitions - there are many investors
and stakeholders who are not afraid of hiring foreign consultants to guide local projects.
As seen in the literature review previously in the report, it’s highly possible to hire any
number of consultants from various parts of the world, to be able to advise and guide the
local design team on new function, structural integrity, and so on.

As for the lack of materials for old buildings - if the old buildings are not required to be
preserved completely, then it’s definitely an option to implement other materials. Another
case scenario would be to invest once in older building materials, and then be able to
reuse countless buildings across the region, as the similar climate and geographical
location would mean the vernacular architecture would be very similar in build, design
and material.

Then, there is the matter of standards, which will be covered later on the legislative
barriers.

Economic Barriers

o Unexpected problems on the site.

o Older buildings may require extensive and costly continual
maintenance.
o Replacement of mechanical/electrical parts.
o The difficulty of producing accurate complete estimates of the project
cost, which may cause problems later on​[78]

Once again, a tried and tested, worthy foreign consultant who has worked on projects -
perhaps in similar climates, regions or cultural backdrops - would be able to foresee the
risk and provide risk engineering insight to the local team, as well as estimate the project
more accurately, given local ratings and precedents of regular construction.

While it is true that maintenance would be needed, the proper treatment of a building
would mostly cover a single extensive, intensive maintenance during reconstruction,
which would be sufficient for the building to be able to withstand future use. ‘Extensive
and costly’ continual maintenance was not found to be the case in other precedents
studied earlier. There is also the fact that some buildings are simply too dilapidated to be
able to be revived. These buildings are then not reused, and so no maintenance would
occur.

Upgrade of systematic parts may very well supply a return on investment, if the right
systems and parts were chosen, when the decision is guided by site analysis, building
analysis, function analysis, and so forth.
 Legal Barriers

o The Government has not adopted the concept as a sustainable

strategy. Thus, it has no clear policy on its applications or requirements.
o The lack of specified regulations, codes or manuals on approaches to
building adaptation or reuse.
o The inadequate implementation policies on land-use specifications or
requirements.
o Lack of legislation to compel owners to rehabilitate their decaying
properties.
o Lack of convincing incentive programs to motivate investors to adopt
the approach.
o The absence of assessment tools to perform adaptive reuse projects or
to judge them such as LEED (EB), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
o The shortage of inspection mechanism to improve the overall efficiency
of the process of building reuse.​[79]

Given the Vision 2030 goals, and previous receptiveness to the public’s objectives for
sustainability, a petition may be signed for the government to adopt adaptive reuse as a
legitimate strategy of sustainability, as is done around the world.

Once the government passes acts in favor of adaptive reuse being a sustainable
strategy, the rest of the work - regulations and codes, implementation policies, and
incentive programs will be slowly but surely worked on and provided. In addition,
although LEED and LCA are not impressed upon construction firms or design practises,
Mostadam is a national program that is already in swing, and can be expanded to
achieve the goals of LEED and LCA on a national level, modified to meet the Kingdom's
specific requirements, climates, and needs.

Another solution could be as follows:

Fig 2.1​ Suggestions for legislation that can be passed and applied for adaptive reuse of buildings, both
historic and non-historic.​[80]
Additionally, another topic to be broached is the TOD that is to be initiated in tandem
with the Metro project. The goals of the Metro-related TOD, listed in the Executive
Summary of the Riyadh TOD Study, are as follows:

● Encourage developments of the City Centre, through increased accessibility,

which has been a barrier to investment in recent decades.

● For TOD to be successful, it needs to be part of a comprehensive strategy which

ensures that the connections are made between employment, entertainment,
amenities and communities.

● A selection of the most appropriate mix of uses of an individual TOD or across a

transit corridor is crucial to the success of TOD across the city. High quality
public realms adjacent to stations will be a vital component of creating an
attractive, well connected, versatile and pedestrian friendly environment that
creates a sense of identity for adjacent communities.[81]
​

Since buildings are mostly already built throughout the Metro corridors, nodes, Centers,
and other passages, adaptive reuse is almost a responsibility - the buildings currently
present adjacent to the Metro lines are not all living up to the TOD requirements, either
not mixed enough, or without any of the uses highlighted per line adjacence or Station.
Adaptive reuse is the only sustainable option: no razing down and demolition of entire
streets, but instead repurposing the buildings already present with differing levels of
intervention to accomplish a network of buildings around the Metro, as required, that are
comfortable, enjoyable and sustainable for TOD.

Adaptive reuse of this scale - lesser than that studied in Fez, but still a considerable
amount of districts that link to each other - could create a positive domino effect of urban
center revitalization, generating more jobs, propagating culture, and increasing quality of
life for all involved.
 CASE STUDY 1.​ KFC Outlet.

Fig 3.1.1​ Shown highlighted is an abandoned KFC outlet.

8117 King Abdul Aziz Rd, Ad Dhubbat 
Riyadh 12623 3912 

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig 3.1.2 ​Shown is the ¼ mile radius ​Table 3.1.1​ Showing the distribution of amenities within a
circle around the site and what land 5 minute walk of the site.
uses/amenities are available
within a 5 minute walk.

Shown above are the amenities as present today. However, for the future TOD
integration, the specific zone of the Metro that this is located on must be found, the
building itself must be analysed as well, and then decisions must be made accordingly.
 Fig 3.1.3 ​The figure above shows that the site is located on line 2, midway of the line’s intersections with
lines 1 and 5.​[82]​ This particular location is called the Activity Center in the Riyadh Metro.​[83]

Referring to the above figure, it can be seen that this zone has to be extraordinarily
developed, being a hub/crosswalk of different station lines.

According to the Executive Summary of the TOD that was issued by the Alriyadh
Development Authority, structures should host retail, community services, hospitals,
commercial offices, employment, attractions and other facilities should be provided.

As such, the issue that we are faced with now, is regarding what kind of program on this
site could be ideal for this neighborhood/add diversity of functions.

In order to answer this, the building itself will be seen, to be able to understand the
structure at least minimally, before making decisions about what it could possibly host.

​Fig 3.1.4 ​Facade of the building.​ ​ ​Fig 3.1.5 ​Column spans.

The building is made up of 5 levels, spread across the ground and first floor. The main
floor slab levels are 4m apart.

Fig 3.1.6​ This image shows the elevation of the building with the different levels, as well as a line through
the left tower to show where the section will cut through. The mezzanine of the ground floor is only present
on the left tower, so that is where we will cut through.

Fig 3.1.7​ This image shows the section with different levels.
 Fig 3.1.8​ The two images above show the raised area - the approach and ascent.

Fig 3.1.9​ The image above shows the connection of what used to be the dome, and colonnade.

Fig 3.1.10​ The images above show different fenestration frames and opportunities to create views.
Upon studying the surrounding functions, and analysing both what is required of the
TOD and what the building itself could be used for, it was concluded that there are not
many children-specific areas around, apart from the parks (which are not directly
adjacent to the Metro line). There are also no bookstores or libraries, or a community
space where people of all ages could mingle. Therefore, this is what the building will be
used as.

On the ground floor, there can be an indoor play area for children to the left, with book
cafes lined against the right side. In a pocket on the left will be a bookstore selling both
used and new books. The center would simply be an area for circulation, to reach the far
back where the bathrooms are, and to appreciate the atrium above.

Fig 3.1.11 ​The reused ground floor schematic sketch. The original columns stay in place, as well as the
bathroom area at the back. The circle shows where the atrium would be. The stairs also stay in place.

The first floor, on the other hand, would be a retail and lounge area, where light can filter
through an atrium, balcony, curtain wall, and skylight. The retail will consist of traditional
crafts shops and gifts shops, in ideal lighting, given their positions by the windows, while
the lounge area is shaded by the colonnade, cooler and relaxed.
 Fig 3.1.12 ​The reused first floor schematic sketch.

Fig 3.1.11​ The rendering above shows the children’s area on the ground floor.
Fig 3.1.12​ The image above shows the atrium from the first floor view.

Fig 3.1.13​ The image above shows improved glazing from Fig 3.1.10.
Since the openings already provided by the original structure is sufficient for the placement of
activities and their daylight requirements, no more windows will be added. The atrium was
created only to add dynamism to the building, and this was a feasible move, since the concrete
is reinforced and no columns were affected.

Fig 3.1.14​ The image above shows a view towards one of the book cafes.

The visit to the building showed that most of the electrical wiring and plumbing systems were
still intact, which means the only upgrading required would be choosing LED light fixtures, and
toilet fixtures. For the HVAC, the piping was still visible, as well as the roof of the building. This
means aircon units need to be installed, but minimal work will be needed to do so.
Pakistan
Karachi

The phenomenon of ​ghost schools​ is widely spread across Pakistan, with over 30,000
schools across the country being already abandoned or currently falling into disuse.
Sindh, the third largest province of the country, is responsible for 6,149 of those schools,
as of 2015.

Primary schools are more easily abandoned, as lifestyles or circumstances may cause
more children to drop out or be unable to attend an early age. Of the 6,149 schools,
5,906 are primary schools, with 398 of the ghost schools being middle schools, and the
remaining 2 as secondary schools.

It is seen that over 90% of ghost schools in the province are located in rural areas,
where there is less societal pressure for education, and prioritization of traditional
vocations, agriculture, and so on. Under 3% of ghost schools appear in urban areas.

Table 3.2.1 ​shows the distribution of ghost schools across Sindh. 13.4% all schools in Sindh are “ghost
schools” in Sindh.​[84]
CASE STUDY 2.​ M
​ irza Adam Khan School, Lyari, Karachi, Pakistan.

Fig 3.2.1​ Shown highlighted is Mirza Adam Khan School.

Mirza Adam Khan Rd, Dhobi Ghat, Lyari,
Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig 3.2.2 ​Shown is the ¼ mile radius circle around the site, ​Fig 3.2.2 ​Showing the distribution of amenities
and what land uses/amenities are available within a 5 within a 5 minute walk.
minute walk.
 Fig 3.2.3​ The image above shows a typical government school design, which is applied across the country,
with very little changes.

Fig 3.2.4​ This is an image of this set of governmental schools in the area, showing the slight change in
facade design, as seen. Photographed by Emran Brohi.

The Mirza Adam Khan School in Lyari has become a hub for meetings between small-scale
gangs and petty criminals, as a result of its disuse. To adaptively reuse this building, thought
has to be put into functions that can manage to replace the activities ongoing currently, with
ones that may benefit the community and the current users of this space, as opposed to
continue to propagate the crime ongoing.

Considering the fact that a school is well-equipped, structurally speaking, to hold a high density
of people per m​2​, it is proposed to strip the partition walls of classrooms from one side of the
ground floor, creating 3, large, public spaces - communal spaces. Here, community literacy
classes can take place, as well as small-scale events. The walls put up to separate these 3 new
spaces can be foldable or otherwise transformative, allowing a medium-scale event to take
place once the entire portion of the ground floor becomes open.

The other side for the ground floor can be used for a community kitchen. Here, partition walls of
5-6 classrooms can be taken down, creating a single, long room. This will be the kitchen space,
and the large windows in the classrooms will allow people to have their food served to them in
the alleyway on the side, while people can queue up inside the corridor as well. The rest of the
corridor will be used for circulation, seating, while the bathrooms can be partially refitted as a
washing area for utensils for the staff.

On the first floor can be vocational training rooms, which will target different age groups. The
structure will be able to bear this load, as the load will be similar to that of before. The training
rooms will be enlarged versions of the original classrooms, so the partition walls can be shifted
and taken down as needed. Products can be showcased in the part of the corridor that connects
the vertical circulation with each wing of the building.

Products may also be shown and sold in the central courtyard of the building. This can help
keep down the juvenile and young adult crime rate, by involving that age bracket in productive
work which is then rewarded by community interest and revenue, which might help shape a
different mindset and change their circumstances for the better.

In this way, an educational and community center that addresses the immediate needs of the
surrounding neighborhood can come into being, and help citizens to advance their opportunities
in the world that is up to 10, 15, 20 minutes away on foot.

Fig 3.2.5​ The images above show a schematic sketch of how the areas can be redistributed among new or
modified functions for Mirza Adam Khan School.
CONCLUSION

In all the precedents studied so far, it can be seen that the effort required to bring a successful
adaptive reuse about - whether from a government body, a private owner, or a grassroots
coalition - this regeneration requires vision. It requires dedication to the completion of such a
cause.

As architects, engineers, developers and individuals with agency, in a community with flaws - as
any community is - if we know there are ways to improve some of these flaws, if we know of
methods and strategies that could improve life for hundreds of people; that, in their own way,
could lead to a better district, region, city and country; that open up possibilities of an altered
reality where equity, health, economical thriving, environmental accommodation, and user
satisfaction are all realized - if we know all these, then it is our responsibility to follow these
methods, these strategies until this better, improved reality is truly realized. It is our
responsibility to spread this positive effect, instead of looking the other way.

...reuse is a very effective way of reaching poetic complexity. Perfection is

usually quite boring. The most interesting buildings bear the marks of
different eras and design ideologies.
Rick ten Doeschate

… [in] transforming and renovating buildings to make them more efficient,

more beautiful and sustainable, [we are] making them favorable to the
welfare of the community that inhabits them.
Alejandro Hermida

Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous

streets and districts to grow without them…. for really new ideas of any
kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of
them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error
and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction.
Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old
buildings.

Jane Jacobs,​ The Death and Life of Great American Cities

APPENDIX

● Urban heat island effect

As urban areas develop, changes occur in their landscape. Buildings, roads, and other
infrastructure replace open land and vegetation. Surfaces that were once permeable and
moist become impermeable and dry. These changes cause urban regions to become
warmer than their rural surroundings, forming an "island" of higher temperatures in the
landscape.

Heat islands occur on the surface and in the atmosphere. On a hot, sunny summer day,
the sun can heat dry, exposed urban surfaces, such as roofs and pavement, to
temperatures 50–90°F (27–50°C) hotter than the air1, while shaded or moist
surfaces—often in more rural surroundings—remain close to air temperatures. Surface
urban heat islands are typically present day and night, but tend to be strongest during
the day when the sun is shining.​[85]

● Place identity

Each space and place is a source of identity and identifies the groups that locate in
there. A space should have one identity and one structure for residents. Lynch simply
identifies the place identity as: being unique from other places. His base for this
identification is having a separate essence.

According to Harold Prohansky‟s theory: “place identity is a part of human‟s individual

sub construction and is the outcome of his/her general cognitions about the physical
universe which he/she lives in (Proshansky, 1976). It can be said: a part of everyone‟s
existential character which makes his/her personal identity; is a place that he/she knows
his/her self with and introduces to others.

Norberg Schulz in addition declared: identification also consists of aperture and being
open to environment character; which in the past was narrated as “spirit of place”. This
spirit of place is followed by “sense of place” which Fritz Steele in the book “sense of
place” mentions some of physical features in perception and sensation, such as
“dimension of place, degree of enclosure, contrast, scale, color, smell and visual
diversity”. He knows sense of place a total phenomenon with constructional values which
becomes possible in context of perception and directing in space.​[86]
● The ‘third’ place

Third places​ is a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg and refers to places where
people spend time between home (‘first’ place) and work (‘second’ place). They are
locations where we exchange ideas, have a good time, and build relationships.

Third places have a number of important community-building attributes. Depending on

their location, social classes and backgrounds can be “leveled-out” in ways that are
unfortunately rare these days, with people feeling they are treated as social equals.
Informal conversation is the main activity and most important linking function. One
commentator refers to third places as the “living room” of society.

Many city planning efforts to reinvigorate metropolitan neighborhoods now include

specific steps to create third places, especially public spaces, to try and break down
social siloes.​[87]

● Dematerialization

Dematerialization can be defined as a reduction of materials and/or energy use in

existing products, or creating products or services to minimize negative environmental
impact without compromising the ability of present and future generations to meet their
own needs.​[88]

● Sustainable material

Sustainable materials are materials used throughout our consumer and industrial
economy that can be produced in required volumes without depleting non-renewable
resources and without disrupting the established steady-state equilibrium of the
environment and key natural resource systems. Such materials vary enormously and
may range from bio-based polymers derived from polysaccharides, or highly recyclable
materials such as glass that can be reprocessed an indefinite number of times without
requiring additional mineral resources.​[89]

● The Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation are ten basic principles
created to help preserve the distinctive character of a historic building and its site, while
allowing for reasonable change to meet new needs. Rehabilitation projects must meet
the following Standards to qualify as “certified rehabilitations” eligible for the 20 percent
rehabilitation tax credit. The Standards apply to both the exterior and the interior of
historic buildings and include related landscape features as well as additions and new
construction. It should be noted that the Standards are interpreted with economic and
technical feasibility issues considered on a case-by-case basis.
The Standards, outlined by ​National Park Service, Heritage Preservation Services,​ are
as follows:

1. A property shall be used for its historic purpose or be placed in a new use that
requires minimal change to the defining characteristics of the building and its site
and environment.

2. The historic character of a property shall be retained and preserved. The

removal of historic materials or alteration of features and spaces that
characterize a property shall be avoided.

3. Each property shall be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and
use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding
conjectural features or architectural elements from other buildings, shall not be
undertaken.

4. Most properties change over time; those changes that have acquired historic
significance in their own right shall be retained and preserved.

5. Distinctive features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of

craftsmanship that characterize a historic property shall be preserved.

6. Deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced. Where the
severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new
feature shall match the old in design, color, texture, and other visual qualities
and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features shall be
substantiated by documentary, physical, or pictorial evidence.

7. Chemical or physical treatments, such as sandblasting, that cause damage to

historic materials shall not be used. The surface cleaning of structures, if
appropriate, shall be undertaken using the gentlest means possible.

8. Significant archeological resources affected by a project shall be protected and

preserved. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures shall be
undertaken.

9. New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction shall not

destroy historic materials that characterize the property. The new work shall be
differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the massing, size, scale,
and architectural features to protect the historic integrity of the property and its
environment.
 10. New additions and adjacent or related new construction shall be undertaken
in such a manner that if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of
the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.​[90]

● TOD

According to [Link], the official website for transit oriented development,

“​Transit Oriented Development is the exciting fast growing trend in creating vibrant,
livable, sustainable communities. Also known as TOD, it's the creation of compact,
walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use communities centered around high quality train
systems. This makes it possible to live a lower-stress life without complete dependence
on a car for mobility and survival.

Transit oriented development is regional planning, city revitalization, suburban renewal,

and walkable neighborhoods combined. TOD is rapidly sweeping the nation with the
creation of exciting people places in city after city. The public has embraced the concept
across the nation as the most desirable places to live, work, and play. Real estate
developers have quickly followed to meet the high demand for quality urban places
served by rail systems.

Transit oriented development is also a major solution to the serious and growing
problems of climate change and global energy security by creating dense, walkable
communities that greatly reduce the need for driving and energy consumption. This type
of living arrangement can reduce driving by up to 85%.​ ”​[91]

● Ghost schools

As stated in the December 2015 version of the​ ​State Of Education In Sindh: A Budgetary
Analysis report​,​ a ghost school can be defined as, ​“an infrastructure built for school
purposes which now houses animals in courtyards and classrooms. These schools today
are residences, stables or offices of private or official departments, including those of the
police and Rangers. Teachers continue to draw salaries, while the buildings remain
occupied by those other than students.”​[92]
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