Adaptable built form can lead to sustained street vitality

Alan March & Yogita Rijal & Sara Wilkinson & Ebru Firidin Özgür, "Measuring Building Adaptability and Street Vitality," Planning Practice and Research 27 (2012): 5

The take-away: This paper demonstrates methods for measuring, first, the extent of adaptability inherent in different built forms, and second, the extent of ongoing ‘vitality’ enabled by that adaptability. Based on empirical findings, it argues that “adaptability, when translated to actual adaptation, facilitates sustained vitality.”    

Abstract: A long-standing urban design principle is that successful places exhibit vitality, being vibrant and  diverse. This vitality depends on levels of economic and social success that sustain over time  urban diversity including cafes, restaurants, delicatessens, bakeries, cinemas and galleries,  grocery stores, pubs and clubs of varying sizes and types to suit individuals of varying taste,  preference and socio-economic status. Accordingly, a successful public realm includes a  complex ‘transaction base’ of activities. Since vitality occurs in physical, primarily human-made  built forms and spaces, the qualities of physically permanent urban places influence vitality.  However, the built form may eventually become inappropriate for its original purpose, the use  redundant, or changes to demand may occur. Many buildings and spaces, specifically, are  therefore refurbished or reused, but time, cost, inability, or environmental constraints associated  with changes may impede physical change and therefore the ongoing maintenance and  enhancement of places' vitality. Importantly, some physical structures facilitate adaptability  better than others overcoming a decline of activity or the need for expensive adaptation or  outright demolition and redevelopment.This research examines the suggestion that greater  levels of place adaptability facilitates higher levels of ongoing vitality, due to the ability for  structures to be used for a range of purposes over time, without the need for changes to  physical form, particularly in the move to higher densities. The paper outlines a method for  measuring vitality and building adaptability in parallel and reports the results of empirical research of key locations in Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD).It is argued using  empirical data that adaptability, when translated to actual adaption, facilitates sustained vitality.

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