ABSTRACT
At the end of a century, let alone a millennium, there is an interest in new ideas, and an opportunity to rethink the way that we treat our heritage of old industrial buildings. Although ideas of adaptive re-use have been taken from the USA, applied in many cities in Britain and exported to the rest of Europe, there is still a huge rift between the guardians of our heritage and the entrepreneurs and professionals who bring old buildings back to use. Having spent over twenty years as a consultant, during which time URBED has been involved in many pioneering projects and research reports, it seems appropriate to look forward to the next twenty years, and to set out some lessons from our experience that may guide the next generation of re-use projects. In this chapter I have sought therefore to tackle three issues:
How are the challenges changing in terms of supply and demand of buildings, and what are the the factors influencing reuse? What lessons for good practice can be drawn from a range of projects with which URBED is associated, including some failures as well as successes? What can be done to ensure that the resources needed for sustainable regeneration are available on the scale required?
