Retail-Reuse of Historic Buildings: an Inquiry into Opportunities and Threats

Abstract

In many historic towns, heritage buildings and sites have lost their original function and are currently used for retail and other commercial activities. This phenomenon, which we called retail-reuse, can be seen as an opportunity for the heritage sector- the commercial (re)use of heritage places generates funds for its maintenance and restoration, and the herit-age often stays accessible for a large audience - as well as for the retail-sector – historical buildings are often centrally located, are spacious and have a unique and authentic character that might be appealing to customers. On the other hand, involved stakeholders may have various or even conflicting interests in the project which might generate tension, and eventually a loss in quality in conservation or retail design. The aim of our study is to investigate the opportunities and threats of retail-reuse in order to be able to better anticipate such problems in fu-ture retail-reuse projects. We did so for six different building types: industrial buildings, religious buildings, (semi-) public buildings, residential buildings, military buildings and retail buildings. As existing studies on adaptive reuse into retail are scarce, we have to work with realised examples: 33 projects of retail-reuse were analysed out of which 10 projects were stud-ied more in-depth as case studies. Our findings are summarized in a matrix, indicating for each typology the particular threats and opportunities for reuse into a retail function. We also for-mulated 7 aspects that are most frequent or most decisive in the suitability of historic build-ings for retail-reuse: (1) location, (2) size, (3) adaptability, (4) characteristics of the façade, (5) character and atmosphere, (6) public support, and (7) afterlife. We conclude with stating the implications for practice, and we formulate policy guidelines as to retail-reuse of historic buildings.