Adaptive reuse of old houses as coffee shop: Environmental and spatial aspects

Abstract

Adaptive reuse is a transformation carried out on buildings to provide new functions both from aesthetic and functional aspects. For decades, adaptive reuse has been a panacea for bridging the conservation and current needs for development. In addition, adaptive reuse has been considered an environmentally friendly approach to architectural conservation practices regarding the reuse of building materials and spaces. Besides government-imposed conservation, the community initiated to conserve everyday buildings by spontaneously and informally reusing and adapting various types of buildings known as a vernacular adaptive reuse. This study examines this vernacular approach by analyzing the process and changes that occur because of its application. The case study examined three residential houses that were built in the late 1960s and have been transformed into coffee shops. A research method is an approach through interviews with coffee shop business owners and local government, site observations on the surrounding area of old houses, building measurements, as well as literature studies related to adaptive reuse. The results showed that the process of the vernacular adaptive reuse approach was carried out by the business owners in a creative and pragmatic way with minimal cost and without expert’s involvement. Its application has positive impacts on the surrounding environment, such as social and economic activities, and it reduces environmental impacts by reusing abandoned buildings. In the spatial aspect, the old houses are regenerated by using a new spatial organization that still utilizes some of the spatial organization from the previous function.