Retail-reuse of historic buildings: developing guidelines for designer and conservators

Abstract

In different historic cities in Europe, not a few historic buildings are left unoccupied because they lost their initial function. To avoid a degradation of the building itself and the cityscape it belongs to, a new use for the building is desirable in order to supply finances for its maintenance and restoration. From the retail sector, there exists a strong demand for available buildings on A-locations1 in the city which cover a large area. The commercial centre of the city is in many cases the historic city centre, so the eligible buildings are often monuments such as post offices, religious buildings or industrial buildings. Commercial reuse of those buildings seems to be a beneficial solution for both parties. For instance, it is easier to find investors for retail projects than for social or cultural projects. Moreover, the building will have a public function, allowing it to become part of contemporary urban life. However tempting this immediate solution may seem, it is not always evident to introduce a retail interior in a monumental building. Many stakeholders are involved with different interests. Investors are mainly interested in the revenues of the project and not in the conservation of the historic building. Conservators fear an over-use of the monument without any respect for its value. But even if the owner chooses a qualitative conservation and restoration, the quality of the project is not automatically guaranteed. In many cases, the building will be rented out to a user who does not always takes the specific characteristics of the monument into account. In the case of a tenant, monument boards almost have no control over the use of the building after its restoration. After all, to thepublic at large the evaluation of the building does not depend on the architectural style of the monument but on the way the building is used today. Therefore reuse of buildings is not only an architectural, but also an urban and social challenge