Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to identify the opportunities and address the problems related to the adaptive reuse of buildings and sites in a theoretical manner, which is contrasted against the actual practice of the discipline through case studies. It addresses the history and evolution of adaptive reuse as a discipline. The book examines an extensive review of literature on adaptive reuse from the 1970s onwards, and deals with a set of definitions related to building reuse and adaptation. It explains the link between building reuse and more generally the conservation and reactivation of the existing building stock as a tool for urban regeneration. The book focuses on the concept of genius loci, or ‘spirit of place’, and how this concept is key for reading and adapting existing tangible and intangible traces of the past in a qualitative way.