And the shortlist for the 2021 WAN Awards Adaptive reuse category is...

Astoriahuset and Nybrogatan 17 by 3XN

Astoriahuset and Nybrogatan 17 consist of a renovated multi-story building from 1873 and the construction of a new connected office building. Astoriahuset and Nybrogatan 17 are located side by side in Östermalm, Stockholm’s historic city centre. The focus has been on uniting the existing with the new through form, materiality, and architectural details.

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Restoration of Shindagha Historical Buildings by Dubai Architectural Heritage and Antiquities Department, Dubai Municipality

The stories behind the making of Dubai’s iconic high-rise buildings have excited people beyond boundaries. Often untold and perhaps equally exciting is the story of how Dubai Municipality has meticulously restored and revitalized the historical buildings in Shindagha, which was once the central and most distinctive district of old Dubai and the home to Dubai’s ruling Sheikhs and leading merchants.

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White House Homestay Cluster in Xinji by Atelier cnS

White House Homestay Cluster Project is located in Xinji Village, Mayong Town, Dongguan, a typical rural area in the suburbs of the Pearl River Delta.

In Xinji Village, we adopted a scatter-style update method to transform an old, derelict and culturally valuable old house scattered throughout the village to create an open-minded community, which is mutualistic with the local villagers.

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Shougang No. 3 Blast-Furnace Museum by CCTN Design

The project covers an area of about 2.53 hectares and was completed in 2019.

The design uses 3 core strategies, which specifically refer to keeping the authenticity of heritage in the physical environment, adding new functions to make the heritage blend with social life and showing respect to history via exhibition arrangements and spatial devices.

The new and old buildings stay in a harmonious relation. The renovated part retains the holistic features of the industrial heritage while implanting new functional spaces inside. And the newly-built part utilizes the minimal volume and landscaped architecture to avoid interference on the style of heritage.

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TaoCang Art Center by Roarc Renew

There are two granaries built in the 1950s/1960s nearby hundreds of acres of lotus marsh and the TaoCang canal, which were previously for residents to store grains, but later were burned and discarded for years.

Functionally, the future granaries are defined as an art centre by the owner. After renovation, the granaries constitute the main body of a commercial gallery and an art gallery. The added corridors act as auxiliary spaces, e.g. coffee store, entrance and social space.

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Xiangyuxiangyuan Home Stay by The Design Institute Of Landscape & Architecture China Academy Of Art Co., Ltd.

This project is located in Dazhai Village, Xiang'an District, Xiamen, which is composed of 3 ancestral houses of different ages and 2 new buildings.

Because the three traditional houses have collapsed, the designer uses “implanted geometry “and “implanted steel frame” to organize the architectural renovation. The entrance of the building uses fall height glass windows which gives a more interactive community communication, as the structural function to fill the collapsed part of the house. The white building with geometric windows and an open roof-integrated also connects the originally independent buildings into a collection of communities. Building No.1 as an example： geometric main with three windows in different directions, introduces a natural view into the interior. The new simple buildings have also been rebuilt on both sides of the atrium patio to slow down the depressing atmosphere.

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The Momentary by Wheeler Kearns Architects

The Momentary is a one-of-a-kind multidisciplinary visual and performing arts venue creatively repurposed from a 70-year-old decommissioned cheese plant.

The project transforms a patchwork of existing concrete and masonry buildings into a fluid arts experience. Rather than attempting to blur its newest additions into what existed before, contemporary interventions of glass and steel appear to float, superimposed on to the former factory. A frit pattern, inspired from ceremonial weaving designed by a local Osage artist, playfully changes in scale and transparency as it moves across the different glass elements to pay homage to the site’s history as Osage hunting land.

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