Functional Continuity in Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings: Evaluating a Studio Experience

Abstract

Interior architecture is mainly concerned with adapting existing buildings to new uses and requirements. While determining the extent of intervention, the historic and cultural background of the building plays a very important role. Therefore in adaptive reuse, before starting to develop design proposals, buildings of cultural significance need to be analyzed carefully in order to determine architectural and spatial potentials. This paper aims to evaluate the process and results of a design studio, which was realized during 2014-2015 Fall Semester in the ITU Department of Interior Architecture. The main purpose of the studio experience was to create adaptive reuse proposals for a historic commercial building by focusing on the theme of “functional unity”. In the first phase of the study, course program was organized in three basic steps: analyzing spatial potential, determining compatible use and developing project proposals. At the end of every step there was a jury to evaluate each phase. Every step had its own priorities and criteria for the jury. After evaluations project proposals were classified according to their main foci as well as advantages and disadvantages of different approaches in terms of functional unity. As a result it was observed that in historic buildings there are different ways of maintaining functional unity based on the intention of the intervention. While identifying compatible use or uses for a historic building, functional unity needs to be evaluated as one of the basic design criteria in order to retain its cultural significance. This is mainly because a historic building can fully reveal it’s potential only if it is experienced and evaluated as a whole.