Design Ethos of Subtraction and Addition: 10 Adaptive Reuse Projects for Commercial and Social Spaces in Asia
Adaptive reuse, a vital architectural strategy worldwide, is gaining traction in Asia, driven by ecological awareness and a shifting understanding of architectural knowledge. Instead of demolition and new construction, architects are embracing the existing structure as a resource, an archive of materials, spatial organizations, and informal histories. This approach challenges prevailing standards of efficiency and market-driven development, aiming to preserve embodied material and cultural knowledge.
The field of seemingly 'less-valued' structures, such as abandoned houses, standard yet old dwellings, non-conforming office buildings, and overlooked urban voids, has become a ground for experimentation. These sites encourage architects to reconsider efficiency and market-driven development, imagining spatial and ecological practices that avoid the loss of embodied material and cultural knowledge inherent in constant rebuilding.
The design approach often requires balancing subtraction and addition within restrictive regulatory frameworks and aged material conditions, promoting inventive, low-impact construction strategies. Subtraction, through removing partitions, stripping finishes, opening facades, and exposing timber frames, creates opportunities for light, ventilation, landscape, and social interaction. It reveals the anatomy of old buildings and reclaims spatial clarity from layers of accumulation or decay. Addition, through strategic insertions, new circulation routes, and contemporary material, creates refined aesthetics and updated functionality.
The 10 projects presented in this article propose an architectural methodology that treats the existing aged building as a canvas for transformation. Through deliberate acts of subtraction and addition, these projects create flexible frameworks that mediate the temporalities of architecture.
- Dabang Café, Jeonju, South Korea: An old worker dormitory, shaped by natural deterioration, was repurposed as a cafe space. Walls and roof segments were removed to open the interior to air, light, and vegetation. New columns and roof structures support the renewed volumes, while the building becomes the insulated café core. The rest remains porous—part ruin, part garden, part social space.
- 8323. layers of space, Seoul: A common detached house, originally built in the 1980s, was expanded, subdivided, and modified. The project continued this lineage, introducing new material layers while respecting the spatial traces of previous renovations, and repurposed the house as a café and bakery.
- Phum Sambo Café & Eatery, Phnom Penh: An unfinished concrete shell was transformed into a warm, climate-responsive café. By preserving the original structural frame and layering it with carefully detailed timber elements, the design softens the building's raw presence while enhancing comfort and environmental performance.
- O Plant-based Thao Dien Cafe, Ho Chi Minh: Once a small garden attached to an old house, the site was transformed into a café through minimal intervention. The architects sought to preserve the garden's atmosphere rather than overwrite it, using subtraction as the primary design method.
- SPMA Store, Shanghai: The repurposing retains the wooden ceiling, old doors, and limewashed walls of the original 1930s lane house, making it into a retail store. Free-standing volumes are inserted that touch the old structure lightly, exposing construction marks and structural stitching.
- Joomak Restaurant, Jeonju, South Korea: Set within a cluster of decaying factory houses, the project reactivates the site as a hospitality facility by removing boundaries between interior and exterior. Walls were opened to create visual continuity with a newly formed village park, effectively giving the restaurant a communal front yard.
- Commercial Space in Minato, Tokyo: A 1960s wooden apartment has been converted to a flexible rental space. It highlights the original fabric while removing ceiling boards and partitions to enlarge the perception of space. Reinforced beams replace columns strategically.
- SAISEI Office Building in Kandanishikicho, Tokyo: A non-conforming office building was remodelled with a common space through reduction. The façade is set back, floors are reduced, and the original frame becomes a thick surface, mediating between interior and public space.
- REXKL Arts Space and Community Hub, Kuala Lumpur: Originally a dilapidated cinema, the REXKL building has been transformed into a dynamic 6,000 m² community and cultural hub. The original façade, tiled surfaces, and staircase are preserved, while the interior is re-programmed with flexible spaces.
- CACP Designing, Chengdu, China: An abandoned bicycle shed was transformed into a multipurpose public space serving low-income, migrant, and minority communities. Exposed structure allows for ongoing adaptations. A planted roof functions as a community garden and cooling surface.
