Growing up, the warning “Waste not, want not, pick it up and eat it” was often heard. Normally said when food had dropped to the floor, this saying can be extrapolated (yes, make a mind leap!) to this millennium and the sustainability agenda. Our mantra has become reuse, repurpose, recycle, rethink.

Correctly so, for as Carl Elefante, architect and former president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) said, “The greenest building is the one that’s already built.”

Our theme for this edition is Adaptive Reuse – specifically of buildings and décor items that can be given a new lease on life. There is something respectful about honouring old heritage and bringing it gently into a new era. Take, for instance, the buildings of the Church of Scotland, hewn from stone, solid as history itself: beautiful masterpieces with intricate woodwork and stained glass windows. With a fall in membership of 1 million souls in 24 years due to the pull of evangelical churches without woke agendas, the loss of income from parishioners proved too much. The Church of Scotland started selling off properties in 2023 – as many as 400 of them.

To a romanticist, the thought of turning a church into something else but a place of worship, is close to sacrilege. Yet, on a trip to Scotland, I found myself answering the call of nature in a WC with a stained glass window. I also enjoyed a plate of tomato soup in the grounds of that recommissioned little parish church renamed The Artisan Café. Pure pathos.

Closer to home, the church building of the Dutch Reformed Walvis Bay North congregation was sold in 2008 in an innovative move to gain income. The building was bought by a business partnership and turned into offices and a gym. The congregation rented space for worship services at $120 per year.

Heritage buildings that have come to the end of their current function are typically converted into art galleries, libraries, schools, archives or museums. Old factories see new life in the form of apartment buildings.

Hillbrow, Johannesburg, famous for its cosmopolitan vibe in the seventies and infamous for its dereliction by the year 2000, is now at a turning point, with concerned citizens pitching in to resuscitate what used to be a thriving suburb.

In recent years, collaborative efforts by the City of Johannesburg, private developers and community organisations focused on urban regeneration and adaptive reuse of the dilapidated high-rise buildings.

Organisations like the Johannesburg Housing Company and the Madulammoho Housing Association have helped to reclaim and refurbish illegally occupied or abandoned properties. These projects convert rundown buildings into safe, affordable social housing for low-to-mid-income earners. Such regeneration efforts aim to transform Hillbrow into a safer, more liveable and neighbourly place.

When next you pass a building your age or more, reflect for a moment on its functions past and present and have a plan ready for the next round. We owe it to our environment.