Adaptive reuse has emerged as a critical architectural strategy across Asia, driven by growing environmental consciousness and evolving perspectives on architectural preservation. Rather than pursuing traditional development models centered on demolition and new construction, contemporary architects are embracing existing structures as valuable resources containing embodied materials, spatial configurations, and informal histories that deserve preservation and transformation.
This architectural movement extends far beyond the typical preservation of historic buildings and culturally significant heritage sites. The focus has shifted to seemingly 'less-valued' structures including abandoned residential buildings, outdated office complexes, non-conforming commercial spaces, and overlooked urban voids. These projects challenge architects to reconsider conventional standards of efficiency and market-driven development while exploring spatial and ecological practices that prevent the continuous loss of embodied material and cultural knowledge inherent in constant rebuilding.
The practice of repurposing existing structures often requires working within restrictive regulatory frameworks and dealing with aging material conditions, which paradoxically encourages innovative, low-impact construction strategies. Given these constraints, the design approach operates through a carefully balanced methodology of subtraction and addition. Subtraction involves removing partitions, stripping finishes, opening facades, and exposing timber frames to create opportunities for natural light, ventilation, landscape integration, and social interaction to re-enter spaces. This process reveals the anatomical structure of old buildings and reclaims spatial clarity from accumulated layers or decay.
In contrast, strategic additions include contemporary insertions, new circulation routes, and modern materials that create refined aesthetics and updated functionality. These interventions rarely pursue complete demolition or total preservation, instead establishing nuanced dialogues between inherited elements, removed components, and newly introduced features. This approach allows spaces to acquire temporal depth, where materials become markers of time with century-old timber sitting alongside lightweight metal reinforcement, limewashed brick coexisting with contemporary display volumes, and recycled columns reappearing as furniture pieces.
Ten exemplary projects across Asia demonstrate this architectural methodology of reframing, opening, and reorienting existing aged buildings. The Dabang Café by one-aftr in Jeonju, South Korea, deliberately embraces the notion of decay and aging by transforming an old worker dormitory into a cafe space. Walls and roof segments were strategically removed to open the interior to air, light, and vegetation, while new columns and roof structures support renewed volumes. One building serves as the insulated café core while the rest remains porous, functioning simultaneously as part ruin, part garden, and part social space.
In Seoul, the 8323 layers of space project by sukchulmok transformed a common detached house originally built in the 1980s that had been repeatedly expanded, subdivided, and modified over time. The architects continued this evolutionary lineage by introducing new material layers while respecting spatial traces of previous renovations, successfully repurposing the structure as a café and bakery that honors its architectural history.
The Phum Sambo Café & Eatery by Khoan & Partners in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, demonstrates how an unfinished concrete shell can be transformed into a warm, climate-responsive café through adaptation rather than erasure. By preserving the original structural frame and layering it with carefully detailed timber elements including louvers, railings, soffits, and cladding, the design softens the building's raw presence while enhancing comfort and environmental performance.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the O Plant-based Thao Dien Cafe by xưởng xép transformed a small garden attached to an old house into a café through minimal intervention. The architects prioritized preserving the garden's atmosphere rather than overwhelming it with new construction. As the design team explained, "instead of adding, we deliberately subtracted artificial interventions, gradually eliminating unnecessary elements until the space reached its purest form. Throughout this process, it felt as though the site itself was engaging in a dialogue with us: it did not need more; it needed less—an approach that was lighter, more restrained."
The SPMA Store by Atelier TAOC in Shanghai exemplifies sensitive intervention in historic architecture by retaining the wooden ceiling, old doors, and limewashed walls of an original 1930s lane house while converting it into a retail space. Rather than fastening new elements to the existing structure, the architects inserted free-standing volumes that touch the old architecture as lightly as possible, creating layers where textiles, clothing, and architectural surfaces interweave while exposing construction marks and structural details.
Joomak Restaurant by NOMAL in Jeonju, South Korea, reactivates a cluster of decaying factory houses as a hospitality facility by removing boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. Walls were opened to create visual continuity with a newly formed village park, effectively providing the restaurant with a communal front yard. The traditional hanok roof structure was carefully preserved and reinforced, combining historical timber construction with contemporary materials for enhanced structural performance.
In Tokyo's Minato Ward, the Commercial Space project by ROOVICE converted a 1960s wooden apartment into a flexible rental space that highlights the original fabric including windows, roof boards, and timber structure. The renovation removed ceiling boards and partitions to enlarge spatial perception while strategically replacing columns with reinforced beams. Removed structural elements were restored and reused as supports for a central kitchen counter, demonstrating creative material recycling.
The SAISEI Office Building in Kandanishikicho by Saisei Kenchiku Laboratory transformed a non-conforming office building in Tokyo through strategic reduction. The design team explained their approach: "We try to create a new public façade that would enhance the value of both the building and the surrounding open space through the process of legalizing the illegal state of the building by 'reducing the structure.' The 'thicker surface' created by the 'reduced structure' creates a public area within the city, a space that enhances the value of offices and existing public open space."
REXKL Arts Space and Community Hub by Mentahmatter Design in Kuala Lumpur represents large-scale adaptive reuse, transforming a dilapidated cinema into a dynamic 6,000 square meter community and cultural hub. This project preserves the original façade, tiled surfaces, and staircase while re-programming the interior with flexible spaces including an event hall, workshops, retail, and a bookstore, all without expanding the building's footprint while revitalizing surrounding streets.
Finally, the CACP Designing project by YIIIE Architects in Chengdu, China, transformed an abandoned bicycle shed in a dense neighborhood marked by partially demolished brick buildings into a multipurpose public space serving low-income, migrant, and minority communities. The exposed structure allows for ongoing adaptations, while a planted roof functions as both a community garden and cooling surface, and accordion-like everyday materials create flexible spatial hierarchies adaptable to seasonal or communal needs.
These projects collectively propose an architectural methodology that treats existing aged buildings as frameworks to be reframed, opened, and reoriented rather than demolished. Through deliberate acts of subtraction and addition, these interventions transform existing structures into flexible frameworks that mediate different temporalities of architecture, creating spaces where past, present, and future coexist in meaningful dialogue. This approach represents a sustainable alternative to conventional development practices while preserving cultural memory and reducing environmental impact through thoughtful preservation and creative adaptation.
