RE-Heritage – LSA Showcase 2025

Our Ethos

RE-heritage focuses on the creative practice of adaptive reuse as a strategy to safeguard cultural heritage and manage change while reducing the environmental impact of design choices. In both semesters students engaged with the re-purposing and re-modelling of dilapidated historic buildings, located locally and overseas.

In semester one the studio addressed the afterlife of Christian churches which become derelict after being decommissioned and disused. By exploring synergies with local grassroots organisations, students reconfigured the ruinous Church of Christ in Birkenhead, formerly Grade II listed, as a multipurpose community hub with spaces for learning, socialisation and wellbeing.

In semester two the studio engaged with heritage-led reactivation of shrinking rural settlements. Students redeveloped a dilapidated vernacular house in Mulazzo, Italy, into a heritage visitor centre and connected it to the surrounding public realm, devising solutions for vertical and horizontal circulation with the aim to enhance access and foster mobility for all.

ARCH 352

Regeneration is implemented not only through the restoration and reuse of historical buildings but also through the preservation and reactivation of intangible aspects, such as traditions, craftsmanship, or local narratives.
Plevoets and Van Cleempoel

Heritage visitor centre, Mulazzo, Italy

Mulazzo, a small mountainous town in Lunigiana, northern Tuscany, offered an ideal setting to design sustainable futures for vernacular built heritage in depopulating rural areas. The town prospered between the 13th and 14th century under the Malaspinas, who gave refuge to Dante Alighieri, the author of The Divine Comedy, while in exile.

The project site included a dilapidated stone masonry house and adjacent stepped alleyway, a piazza with cellars underneath, and a steep green slope. Working at the urban and architectural scale, students were asked to develop a new access route into town, repurpose the built structures into a heritage visitor centre and connect them up with the surrounding public space. The brief challenged students to explore programmatic and design strategies to present, promote and engage with Mulazzo’s history and heritage, with a view to enhancing the attractiveness of the area, fostering economic growth and, eventually, stimulating the settlement’s re-occupation.

During a field trip in February 2025, the RE-heritage Studio visited Mulazzo, Pontremoli and Peccioli and participated in a hybrid colloquium where local scholars and academics from Pisa University and Milan Polytechnic presented on the history, vernacular heritage and cultural landscapes of the Lunigiana area.

Tutors

Dr Giamila Quattrone
Claudia Briguglio
Sara Green
Phil Owen
Matina Vrettou

Special Thanks

Prof Soumyen Bandyopadhyay
Ilaria Braghiroli
Dr Paola Branduini
Ben Devereau
Kate Dodds
Dr Stuart Gee
Hana Koubková
Dr Stefania Landi
Marie Le Devehat
Lisa McFarlane
Carlos Medel Vera
Dr Marisela Mendoza Ramos
Claudio Novoa
Dr Nicholas Webb
Wirral Borough Council
Comune, Mulazzo
Archivio Museo dei Malaspina
Centro Lunigianese di Studi Danteschi
Dipartimento ABC, Politecnico di Milano

Student Galleries

Students

Catherine Abela
Alla Al Abbadi
Alexander Barbe
Olivia Beech
Freya Bibby
Aimee Brookes
Jasmine Brown
Ella Chapman
Maya Daryono
Guil Deles
Luke Dexter
Hanwei Ding
Yuxuan Ding
Kiah Dyas
Emily Edge
Rosa Embalo
Callum Few
Zheng Gong
Leran Huang
Rifah Husain
Yueyue Jing
Anika Kohli
Xizhe Li
Haodong Liu
Maeve McCartney
Alex Evie Meredith
Ruoxi Miao
Klea Peca
Amandeep Kaur Sahota
Louis Shepley
Ruby Strong
Laura Stunzenaite
Theodora Townsend
Adam Twitchett
Sian Vanderveldon
Haotian Wu
Ming Wu
Jingyi Yuan
Ranze Zhong