37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 209DESIGN APPROACHES FOR THE CONVERSION OFHISTORIC RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGSN. Asoobar *, Ö. Olgaç Türker ***Department of Interior Architecture*Near East University (North Cyprus)*e-mail: negarasoobar@yahoo.com**Department of Interior Architecture**Eastern Mediterranean University (North Cyprus)**e-mail: ozlem.olgac@emu.edu.trKey words: Conversion, Adaptive re-use, Re-functioning, Historical building, Interior DesignAbstractConversions of an existing building can generally answer the requirements better than a newbuilding can provide, in most typologies. Adaptive re-use of existing buildings can help toattain a more sustainable environment. For these reasons, nowadays housing conversionprogrammes are spread out to the world. Moreover, converting the old buildings to new usesare frequently cheaper than the cost of new buildings, so re-using old buildings can be madeon sound economic ground.Building conversion is usually inspired by the need to make certain that properties have acontinuing use. In fact it is a response to answer to the changes in the user preferences.The purpose to keep it useful is critical in such cases. The ultimate positive objective ofconversion is, bringing new life to an old building endangered with disuse and concludingdemolition [14].Another important aspect of this matter is, in 20 th century the number of conversions in theworld has increased because of economical reasons and also because of the lack of sufficientbuildings.This study aims to investigate and classify the re-functioned historical residential buildingsfor an assessment of conversion in terms of different conversion tools and criteria. Thedifferent types of residential historical buildings with different types of conversions such asphysical interior or exterior conversion; to the same use; or to the mixed use; are investigatedaccording to the conversion criteria such as the original style, functional, economical, and thevalues appropriateness.And the conclusions will cover the possible directions that will be followed in the future, inthe conversion design, for enlightening other researchers as well as the renovating architects,and interior architects.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 116