adaptive reuse

In 2005, Kresse Wesling and James Henrit launched Elvis & Kresse*. A certified B Corporation, their sustainable luxury line of bags and accessories is made from genuine de-commissioned British fire brigade hoses that would otherwise be destined for landfill. They have now... Read More →

Surrounded by breathtaking mountainous scenery is the Alila Yangshuo, a converted 1960s sugar mill turned luxury resort hotel. Part of the Alila hotel group, the resort is built on the banks of the Li River in China’s Yangshuo County, situated in the northeast of the... Read More →

New homes and interiors book There are many reasons to be joyful about finally entering March 2017. Snowdrops and daffodils are now gracing our London parks with their cheerful presence. Days are slowly but surely getting longer and we can finally come out of hibernation. On top... Read More →

San Sebastián based architectural firm Estudio Beldarrain have created a new extension to the Municipal Library in Azkoitia, Spain using reclaimed railway sleepers. The library itself is a converted station building, but the old railway track had been removed. In order to put the... Read More →

Dutch architects MVRDV are to design a High Line style park in the South Korean capital. Plans are now in motion for upcycling the neglected 938m long overpass which was built in the 1970s and closed in 2009 after being deemed unsafe for heavy vehicles. An elevated park will... Read More →

Featured in February 2015 Elle Deco UK, the beautiful interior of Anahi, an Argentinian restaurant in the Marais district of Paris. Once a charcuterie built at the turn of the 20th-century, the spaces retain their original broken tiling which have been cleverly filled with sheets... Read More →

This month, a new art installation was revealed on a quiet street in Liverpool. A large fish tank full of serene jellyfish was installed behind the shutters of an abandoned building, emanating a beautiful blue glow by night. The work by Walter Hugo & Zoniel is called... Read More →

The jury’s still out on this one.  Would you eat your coffee and cake in a converted mens public toilet?  Attendant in Fitzrovia, London was once a 19th-century public bathroom complete with porcelain Victorian urinals.  After laying dormant for fifty years Ben Russell and... Read More →

Come September, artist Doug Aitkin will be turning a train into a kinetic sculpture (as per the rendering above), a moving cultural studio for a project called Station to Station. The art train on tour will stop at 10 locations across the USA and the artist will curate a site... Read More →

Loving this installation by Mike Hewson.  The work pays homage to the Christchurch Normal School which was destined for demolition after being badly damaged in the Feb 2012 Christchurch earthquake. Images have been superimposed onto the building which was established in 1876 but... Read More →

The Kraanspoor building in Amsterdam is a three-storey office building which has been built directly on to an 885 ft concrete crane way by Ontwerpgroep Trude Hooykaas.  Kranspoor (meaning ‘Crane Track’) was an abandoned crane gentry from the 1950s in one of... Read More →

Stephen Glassman of Urban Air believes billboards could be turned into lush bamboo sky gardens.  He has designed all the elements of a unique system which boasts water misting and climate monitoring capabilities.  Glassman has collaborated with Arup engineering and billboard... Read More →