Adaptive Reuse Strategies in European Christian Churches

In Europe, Christian churches constitute a substantial part of listed heritage. These numerous liturgical spaces are highly significant to the image of cities and possess unquestionable spatial, material, environmental, and symbolic qualities, yet paradoxically society has progressively ceased to use them as religious practice has declined. For decades, a range of strategies have been applied that activate the potential of these underused religious spaces through a wide variety of other activities and uses. The objective of this article is to identify, select, and analyse a series of case studies from the second half of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first century in which what Richard Sennett defines as “dynamic repair” has been applied: an approach that considers the potential functions of a space with almost no physical modification, completing and correcting what is underused or has fallen into disuse in order to extend its useful life. The study presents a systematic taxonomy of examples of intervention in European sacred heritage within three adaptive reuse strategies—substitution, alternation, and coexistence of functions—which demonstrate how these liturgical spaces can be reused through minimal alterations. These low-impact interventions, combined with the management of uses and occupancy times, enhance the value of this heritage, which bears witness to Europe’s social and cultural identity, and help to keep it active and prevent its underuse, degradation, abandonment or demolition.