Adaptive Reuse: Giving Old Buildings New Life

Lisbon is a city of layers. Roman foundations beneath Moorish walls beneath Pombaline façades. Every era has built upon the last, and this palimpsest of construction is what gives the city its extraordinary depth. When we are asked to intervene in an existing building, we see not a constraint but an opportunity — to add another layer, carefully.

Why Adaptive Reuse Matters

The environmental case is compelling. Demolishing a building and constructing a new one on the same site generates, on average, three to five times more embodied carbon than a renovation. The existing structure — its foundations, its walls, its roof — represents energy already spent. To discard it is to waste it.

But the argument goes beyond carbon accounting. Old buildings carry memory. The worn stone threshold of a 19th-century warehouse, the timber trusses of a former chapel, the industrial steel columns of a factory — these elements connect us to the people who came before. They give a space a quality that no new construction can manufacture: authenticity.

Our Approach

At PK Arquitetos, we follow a simple principle when working with existing structures: listen before you speak.

Before we draw a single line, we spend time in the building. We observe how light enters. We note which walls bear load and which are partition. We study the materials — their condition, their character, their potential. We research the building's history, not as academic exercise but as practical intelligence.

Only then do we begin to imagine what the building could become.

The Dialogue Between Old and New

We do not disguise new interventions as old. A contemporary steel staircase inserted into a stone warehouse should look like what it is — a precise, modern element in a robust, historical shell. This contrast is not conflict; it is conversation. Each element enhances the other.

We favour:

• Reversible interventions — New elements that can be removed without damaging the original structure.
• Material contrast — Pairing new materials (steel, glass, polished plaster) with existing ones (stone, brick, timber) to make the chronology legible.
• Spatial revelation — Removing false ceilings to expose original roof structures, stripping plaster to reveal stone or brick, opening blocked windows to recover lost views.

Three Projects, Three Lessons

A Warehouse in Alcântara

A derelict industrial warehouse was transformed into a mixed-use space: a ground-floor café, a first-floor co-working area, and a rooftop event terrace. We retained the original iron columns and brick walls, inserting a freestanding timber mezzanine that hovers within the existing volume. The new floor does not touch the old walls — it breathes independently.

Lesson: Restraint is a form of respect.

An Apartment in Graça

A 1920s apartment with beautiful azulejo panels in the hallway and kitchen had been badly partitioned into small rooms. By removing later additions and restoring the original spatial flow, we recovered the generous proportions of the plan. New oak joinery was designed to complement, not compete with, the existing tile work.

Lesson: Sometimes the best intervention is subtraction.

A Chapel in the Alentejo

A disused rural chapel was converted into a small library and community space. The altar wall was preserved as a focal element; new bookshelves were installed along the nave walls in a dark, recessive material that allows the original stonework to dominate. A single skylight, cut into the roof where tiles had already failed, floods the reading area with light.

Lesson: Every building has a story. Our job is to continue it, not erase it.

The Future of What Already Exists

As cities densify and resources grow scarce, adaptive reuse will become not a niche practice but a necessity. The buildings that survive the next century will not be the newest or the most fashionable — they will be the ones that were built to last, and the ones that were given the chance to evolve.

At PK Arquitetos, we see every existing building as a question waiting to be answered: What could you become?