Adaptive Reuse of Abandoned Industrial Buildings with the help of Artificial Inteligence

Abstract

All built environments and buildings are proof of humanity and history. Even if a building does not have a crucial value, still it may have value as a heritage because it is a link between the past and today. In addition to buildings, cities are also a collection of urban memory. Urban memory is an important concept for cities because they are the real cultural heritage of humanity. With the help of cultural heritage, all urban memory can be transferred to future generations. In the continuity of time, in societies, while the needs of people change, the places are shaped according to the time and context they belong to, and therefore the structures also change. Since the acceleration of this change, we live in today is constantly increasing, new requirements arise, and new structures are constructed following these needs.
While new buildings were built for new needs, the old buildings became useless and abandoned. Industrial buildings especially become abandoned much faster if they are compared with other buildings. Because they need a change of space with changing technology and industrial infrastructure. However, these abandoned structures were part of cultural continuity and social identity. That existing fabric is among the most important cultural assets. It is important to protect it and to function accurately. The protection of cultural assets also contributes to cultural sustainability. In terms of conservation, not only historical buildings but the whole environment should be used as a resource. For this reason, in order not to lose cultural heritage, buildings should be protected by adaptive reuse even if they lose their functions. Even though the buildings lose their functions, they may mostly preserve their structural features, so they might be suitable for adaptive reuse. While these structures are preserved, each architect, designer, engineer, or even contractor approaches them from a different point of view, and while some structures continue with the same functions, others take on completely different tasks. In this context, when the sustainability of the buildings is considered, the buildings that are exposed to faulty processes lose their originality, identity, and cultural features.

At this point, the adaptive reuse of abandoned industrial structures, which may remain in the centers of cities over time and are in the form of building stock, whose destruction will cause ecological and economic damage, gains great importance. In the process of functioning buildings with the wrong methods and by choosing the wrong functions, damage or even losses may occur in the structures. For this reason, the necessity of artificial intelligence and the new technologies in the re-functioning become a very important topic day by day. Therefore, this paper will discuss how artificial intelligence and new technologies can help people to preserve their social identities in the built environment without any or minimal damage.