Evaluating the Impact of Spatial Design on Users in Adaptive Reuse Projects: The Case of the Karapınar Grain Warehouse

The preservation and use of historic buildings as immovable cultural heritage are important for the continuity of a building’s life. When assigning a new function to buildings beyond their original use, meeting the needs of the city and the public, as well as ensuring socio-cultural and economic sustainability, are important considerations for selecting an appropriate function. When the integration of the new function with the existing building is successful, user satisfaction and the sustainability of the function yield positive outcomes. Based on this, in this study, which investigates the impact of spatial design on users through the adaptive reuse of an immovable cultural asset, the historic grain warehouse located in the center of Konya, Karapınar District, currently serving with a ‘book-café’ function, was selected as the field study. The aim of the study is to analyze the new function of the warehouse building functionally and physically through spatial analysis criteria and user opinions. In this context, users’ experiences were evaluated holistically within the framework of spatial analysis criteria using semi-structured interviews, one of the qualitative research methods. The findings of the study reveal that the adaptively reused building largely meets user expectations in architectural, technical, and environmental terms. It was determined that the building increases its symbolic value in the region, compensates for the lack of social spaces, that interior identity and the feeling the space leaves on individuals are important for users, and that thermal comfort has a direct effect on the duration of users’ stay in the space. However, the insufficient perception of the historical identity in the user experience indicates that the historical context should be more effectively integrated into the design in such adaptive reuse projects.