Adaptive Reuse: Its potential role in sustainable architecture and its relationship to restoration and rehabilitation

Today, many publications on architecture address the topic of adaptive reuse as a current movement which involves recycling old abandoned structures according to the principles of the circular economy with the purpose of reducing damage to the environment. The present article addresses the objectives and potential consequences of adaptive reuse in order to determine to what extent this architectural movement promotes the principles necessary to preserve historic architecture in the future or whether it is simply a trend. The historic relationship between restoration and reuse is described, defining some ideal characteristics of sustainable cities of the future, and reviewing the principles of a circular economy in relation to ecological construction to discuss whether adaptive reuse is a defining characteristic of cultural heritage conservation today.