Adaptive Reuse Gains Momentum but Faces Regulatory Hurdles

Growing awareness of sustainability and the environmental cost of demolishing structurally sound buildings is driving a shift toward adaptive reuse. Corporations and institutions now emphasize ESG performance, requiring carbon accounting, setting carbon-neutral targets, or purchasing carbon credits. Exemplary projects worldwide—Herzog & de Meuron's Tai Kwun in Hong Kong, Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, David Chipperfield's The Ned Doha, and Xu Tiantian's transformations of factories, quarries, and rammed-earth fortresses in China—have accelerated reconsideration of reuse as a primary development strategy. Despite its benefits, adaptive reuse remains less prevalent than possible due to obstacles and tensions, particularly regulatory standards that are often calibrated for new construction rather than renovation.