Adaptive reuse of heritage listed city halls in Queensland, Australia.

Abstract

Adaptive reuse incorporates a range of changes to existing buildings, from maintaining a building due to its specific values to changing the function of the building for new uses, either completely or partially. Much research has been undertaken in the field of adaptive reuse in Australia, mainly in relation to office and commercial buildings. A review of existing studies on adaptive reuse confirms a knowledge gap relating to the adaptive reuse of different building types including heritage buildings. Based on these findings, and in regard to heritage and typology research focus, heritage listed city halls were selected for study. City halls are often iconic well-known local buildings that are usually heritage listed. City halls are important since, although most heritage listed city halls officially belong to local governments, the community also has a strong sense of belonging to them. Heritage listed city halls have undergone adaptation over time; however, there is scarce research related to adaptive reuse of this specific building type. The aim of this thesis is to investigate and analyse the adaptive reuse of heritage listed city halls in Queensland, Australia. To achieve this aim, there three research questions arise. Literature review facilitates in addressing research questions by providing information about different approaches to adaptive reuse, the identification of drivers and challenges to adaptive reuse, and the analysis of assessment and decision making models related to adaptive reuse. From the reviewed literature, two conceptual frameworks in terms of drivers and challenges to adaptive reuse are established. In addition to conceptual frameworks and based on the analysis of existing assessment models, a new model for assessing adaptability in heritage buildings is proposed. The study applies a qualitative research methodology through different research methods such as case study, archival research, document and content analysis, interview, and on-site observation to achieve the required level of triangulation. Having acknowledged the scarcity of existing studies on the adaptive reuse of heritage listed city halls, six Queensland heritage listed city halls are selected as case studies for this thesis. Case studies are investigated and analysed based on interviews, archival research, document and content analysis, and on-site observation. The proposed conceptual frameworks and the new proposed model are applied to each case study. The analysis of case studies reveals that although stylistic restoration is criticised by many authors and charters such as ICOMOS, it is apparent that the adaptation of heritage listed city halls in Queensland is mainly based on stylistic restoration, through restoring a heritage building based on its original condition when it was constructed. Applying the conceptual frameworks to case studies strongly suggest that even though some drivers and challenges have not been considered by previous researchers in the adaptation of heritage buildings, these factors are applicable to the adaptive reuse of heritage listed city halls. The study identifies new drivers and challenges applicable to this building type. All identified drivers and challenges are grouped into eight different categories. Identified drivers of and challenges to adaptive reuse result in the development of two conceptual frameworks and a model exclusively for heritage listed city halls in Queensland. This can be used by students, local and State governments, practitioners and professionals in this field.