Why destroy when we can transform emblematic places in our society like churches? Today, more and more unusual places are given a second life thanks to the repurposing of their buildings. This solution allows them to find a new function mixing the past and the present instead of being razed and replaced.
A real alternative to reconstruction
In this selection of images that you are going to discover, there are, for example, churches which have given life to a swimming pool and a skate parkbut that’s not all! A former cement factory has been transformed into premises to accommodate offices. Afterwards there is also an old bridge which has become a real basketball courtor even a power station which gave birth to a bookstore and several restaurants. When it comes to transform an old buildingideas flow from architects. But in general, town halls prefer to demolish and raze to rebuild something new, leaving behind the past and the history of the city or neighborhood.
However, the rehabilitation of these buildings also allows us to have a sustainable approach that enhances our heritage while meeting current needs, thus mixing the past with the present.
1/ An abandoned church transformed into a skate park in Saint Louis in the United States
2/ The chapel at Claybury psychiatric hospital has become a swimming pool
3/ A piece of bridge in the Philippines transformed into a basketball court
4/ A former McDonald’s station in Gennevilliers in France
5/ A swimming pool which becomes a Museum in Roubaix in France
6/ A former boarding school that became a KFC in Indonesia
7/ A former bank transformed into McDonald’s in Kristiansand, Norway
8/ An old church as a concert hall in Manchester, England
9/ Apartments in a church in Philadelphia in the United States
10/ A former bank that became a Dunkin’ Donuts in Quincy in the United States
11/ A restaurant in a church in Cheltenham in England
12/ A bookstore in a Walmart in Texas, United States
13/ A former KFC theater in Russia in Petrozavodsk
14/ A water tower transformed into a climbing wall in Lithuania
15/ An old bank in a bookstore in Romania in Bucharest
16/ A cement factory hosts offices in Sant Just Desvern, Spain
17/ A bookstore in a former theater in Bonn, Germany
18/ A former bank has become a café in Greer in the United States
19/ A former shopping center turned into a campus in Austin in the United States
20/ A power station which hosts a bookstore and restaurants in Baltimore in the United States
21/ A discotheque in a cereal factory in the Netherlands
22/ A Dunkin’ Donuts in a car wash in the United States
23/ A McDonald’s in an old barn in Maine in the United States
24/ A house in a Pizza Hut in Germany
It is quite a shame to see that the repurposing of buildings is not always considered a real solution before demolition. Rather than razing to rebuild, why not imagine new functions for old buildings instead of letting them disintegrate and then remove them?
Source: hitek.fr