Remaking the obsolete: Critical geographies of contemporary adaptive reuse

Lynch, Nicholas

doi:10.1111/gec3.12605

Cited by 19 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 103 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…Mass closures have been linked to political-economic shifts and institutional reforms grounded in neoliberal agendas (Basu 2007). Public schools are prime targets for urban and regional renewal strategies that foster the rationalization of public assets and the divestment of public-sector support in favor of entrepreneurial and private market investment (Lynch 2022). School closures have also been described as a means to attract higher-income residents and private investment into disadvantaged neighborhoods by closing underperforming schools and increasing school choice options (Bierbaum 2021b;Davis and Oakley 2013).…”

Section: School Closures and Their Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Puerto Rico’s Rescued Schools: A Grassroots Adaptive Reuse Movement for Abandoned School Buildings

Davis,

Reyes,

Abrogar

et al. 2023

Social Sciences

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From 2007 to 2019, over 650 public schools closed in Puerto Rico. School closures not only affect students and teachers; these spaces serve as anchor institutions providing social infrastructure for the sustained health of communities. While closed schools remove a critical community asset, these vacant buildings provide adaptive reuse opportunities for alternative social infrastructure and community resources. This article explores how abandoned schools are repurposed in Puerto Rico, focusing on “rescued schools”—that is, grassroots, voluntary initiatives that repurpose schools to support community development. Through a multi-method approach, we categorized and mapped 161 repurposed schools throughout Puerto Rico—38 were rescued schools—and conducted twelve interviews and two focus groups on rescued school initiatives. Our results describe how abandoned schools offer a galvanizing opportunity for motivated community members to meet emerging, localized needs, and the challenges in gaining school ownership and attracting sustained financial and volunteer support, the lack of which impedes their potential impact. We demonstrate how rescued schools embody alternative regional political visions within Puerto Rico and argue that government authorities can minimize the harm from school closures by forging new partnerships between community-based organizations, municipal governments, and other supportive actors to repurpose schools and reproduce their role as community anchor institutions.

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Section: School Closures and Their Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Puerto Rico’s Rescued Schools: A Grassroots Adaptive Reuse Movement for Abandoned School Buildings

Davis,

Reyes,

Abrogar

et al. 2023

Social Sciences

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“…The sociopolitics of the production of postindustrial consumption and their relationship with heritage sites have been an important topic of inquiry (Lynch 2022;Ong 2012). The conservation and adaptation of industrial buildings have been a challenge and concern for architects and heritage planners in China (Wang and Nan 2007).…”

Section: Social Construction Power and The Production Of The Experien...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The right to entrepreneurial expression over heritage significance: the micropolitics of an adapted cafe in a historic Chinese town

et al. 2022

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This study draws on Henri Lefebvre’s (The production of space, 1992, translated by D. Nicholson-Smith) concept of the spatial triad to examine the micropolitics of the production of urban and social space in a cafe in a historic tourist town in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. Such a spatial and social examination of the historic town of Tangjiawan’s Wangchuan Cafe is conducted in the context of a growing consumer society and experience economy in China. Specifically, we found that the cafe proprietor has performed a role that is commonly associated with official planners and technocrats in creating a ‘coffee art living space’ in a process that Lefebvre describes as a ‘representation of space,’ and that ‘spatial practices’ serve to shape the space away from the heritage significance of the town and towards entrepreneurially aligned ideals. Such resultant consumerist spaces are coconstructed with and negotiated by visitors and consumers. In conducting such an examination, we highlight and critique the ways in which dominant discourses operate in a microsite, such as that of a cafe, that has become a key cultural tourism attraction of the refurbished historic town, the means by which such discourses and visions result in real-world transformations and the ways in which visitors and tourists interpret and negotiate such a microsite.

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“…Architects, designers and developers, however, are habitually concerned with the creative acts of building, and spend much less attention to ‘the negative, anxiety-inducing flip side… [d]eath, destruction, and deterioration’ ( Cairns and Jacobs, 2014 : 1). In response, scholars from across the sciences and social sciences have increasingly drawn attention to the complex ‘end’ phases of buildings’ life cycles – from the processes of obsolescence ( Abramson, 2016 ), abandonment and ruin ( Edensor, 2005 ), the socio-politics of demolition ( Akers et al 2020 ), and finally, to the prospects of reuse – in whole or in part ( Lynch, 2022 ). This paper focuses on the latter phases, demolition and reuse, to explore alternatives to the seemingly endless piles of rubble, debris and waste.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unbuilding the city: Deconstruction and the circular economy in Vancouver

Lynch

2022

Environ Plan A

Self Cite

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Globally, the construction, renovation, and demolition sectors are increasingly responsible for growing resource demand and structural waste, even given progress in energy efficient technologies, ‘green’ building design, and local planning regulations. In response, the Circular Economy has become a popular agenda in the construction, renovation, and demolition sector as it offers a new model that not only maximizes materials reuse and recovery but also reframes urban systems and the built environment in a closed-loop (cradle-to-cradle) paradigm. In particular, popular visions of the Circular Economy promote, among other actions, ‘optimizing’ the end-of-the-life of buildings and their materials. Deconstruction (i.e. piece-by-piece demolition) is one key optimization strategy that has received increasing, yet limited, attention by researchers. This paper traces the development of an incipient deconstruction sector in Vancouver, focusing on the possibilities and challenges of deconstruction and material recovery practices as viable strategies for a transformative Circular Economy. I investigate two related aspects: first, the emerging policy landscape surrounding green demolition, and second, the development of ‘unbuilding’ practices and more formal ‘Deconstruction Hubs’. Overall, the paper finds that while these developments represent fundamental steps towards a more sustainable built environment, there remain a number of significant social, political and economic limitations that must be confronted if we are to meet the growing demands for more radical sustainability and ‘circularity’ not only in Canadian construction, renovation, and demolition sectors, but across Canadian cities and beyond.

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Remaking the obsolete: Critical geographies of contemporary adaptive reuse

Cited by 19 publications

References 103 publications

Puerto Rico’s Rescued Schools: A Grassroots Adaptive Reuse Movement for Abandoned School Buildings

Puerto Rico’s Rescued Schools: A Grassroots Adaptive Reuse Movement for Abandoned School Buildings

The right to entrepreneurial expression over heritage significance: the micropolitics of an adapted cafe in a historic Chinese town

Unbuilding the city: Deconstruction and the circular economy in Vancouver

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