Industrial Exaptation: Mono-Functional Industrial Relics and Their Capacity for Adaptive Multi-Performative Reinvention, a Case Study Analysis

Evan Shieh ()
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Evan Shieh: New York Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Design, New York, NY 10023, USA

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-35

Abstract: This paper examines the adaptive design potential and post-industrial transformation possibilities of decommissioned mono-functional infrastructures (built to serve a single-use purpose) as fertile grounds for industrial exaptation, rather than as obsolete structures from the 20th century industrial age. It develops a typological framework, organized by industrial process, to interrogate these structures and outlines a blueprint for their possible adaptive transformations. Through select global case studies, it proposes how industrial exaptation should move beyond just cultural spectacle to support multi-performative adaptive uses: from productive economies, new forms of industry, and domestic occupations, to ecological remediation strategies and climate-responsive adaptations. Rather than treating these forms as nostalgic artifacts, the paper argues for a paradigm shift: reclaiming industrial infrastructure under the domain of the design disciplines and reframing industrial exaptation as an urban, environmental, and civic project. Through this framework, these post-industrial forms are recast as evolutionary palimpsests—spatial templates for reimagining more sustainable futures in the age of the Anthropocene.

Keywords: industrial exaptation; architectural exaptation; adaptive reuse; mono-functional infrastructure; post-industrial architecture; climate adaptation; case studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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