Reuse of buildings
Giving disused structures a new working purpose.
Focus — Housing, Materials & the Built Environment — Adaptive reuse
ADAPTIVE REUSE
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve how existing buildings are brought back into use for the occupiers and community who will use the building.
Why this area
ADAPTIVE REUSE
IN CONTEXT.
The greenest building is often the one already standing. Ideas qualify when a specific structure, a use, and an occupier are all identified.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Heritage in use
Keeping historic fabric alive through occupation.
Retrofit economics
What reuse costs against new build.
Permission
Ownership, consent, and safety approval.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A ADAPTIVE REUSE
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where how existing buildings are brought back into use fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — cost per square metre against new build, occupancy, or fabric retained.
- Explains what the occupiers and community who will use the building do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of how existing buildings are brought back into use in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier regeneration and heritage schemes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the occupiers and community who will use the building, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — buildings, floor area, or occupants housed.
- A stated measure of success — cost per square metre against new build, occupancy, or fabric retained.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves usable space, cost, and heritage retained for the occupiers and community who will use the building.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named owner, community trust, or local authority able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of how existing buildings are brought back into use in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the occupiers and community who will use the building or the owner, community trust, or local authority.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about adaptive reuse with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
ADAPTIVE REUSE IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about how existing buildings are brought back into use that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.