Adaptive Reuse of Built Heritage for Public Uses. A Creative and Constantly Evolving Design Practice

The extraordinary amount of disused, abandoned or ruined built heritage - both monumental and ordinary, listed or not - can be traced as one of the characteristics of contemporary urban culture in Europe, especially in mediterranean contexts. The emergence and development of the so-called ‘knowledge economies’ in the creative field, the promotion of recycling practices, sustainability issues, environmental and resource conservation policies, and a renewed sensitivity towards existing heritage by the academic and professional community, make adaptive reuse practice increasingly important in both project practice and academic dis-course, especially in the European continental context. The paper aims to investigate and analyse the main characteristics and concepts underlying the adaptive reuse of built heritage as a distinctive contemporary design practice, starting with a theoretical examination of its evolution from spontaneous practice to aesthetic one, to moves then to a critical reading of the “design attitudes” of contemporary projects towards the existing, with particular focus on recent interventions characterized by innovative and resource-saving approaches to the heritage, and on public-related uses and functions, in order to draw a critical-theoretical background for further researches on the field.