IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i14p6403-d1700564.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adaptive Re-Use of Cultural Heritage Sites: A Strategy for Circular Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Fatmaelzahraa Hussein

    (Department of Geography and Urban Sustainability, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 15551, United Arab Emirates)

  • Khawla Alhebsi

    (Department of Geography and Urban Sustainability, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 15551, United Arab Emirates)

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) is a recently introduced concept by the EU and several national governments that aims to reduce the total resources extracted from the environment and limit waste generated by human activities to achieve human well-being and sustainability. This review aims to bring awareness of heritage sites’ role and significance in reducing carbon footprints as a strategy for applying CE and promoting sustainable urban development. This study adopts a qualitative content analysis methodology, selecting academic literature, international case studies, and policy documents based on their relevance to CE principles and heritage conservation. The approach examines the emergence and dissemination of these concepts through published literature, including professional standards and guidelines for valuing and managing heritage sites. Key themes include adaptive re-use strategies, preventive conservation, and policy integration. A comparative reflection on international case studies was conducted to highlight trends, regional variations, and challenges. This review concludes by identifying research gaps and proposing future directions, reinforcing the value of heritage sites as pivotal assets in advancing CE frameworks. This structured synthesis provides a theoretical and practical contribution to integrating circular economy strategies in heritage conservation.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatmaelzahraa Hussein & Khawla Alhebsi, 2025. "Adaptive Re-Use of Cultural Heritage Sites: A Strategy for Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6403-:d:1700564
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6403/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6403/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miren Juaristi & Thaleia Konstantinou & Tomás Gómez-Acebo & Aurora Monge-Barrio, 2020. "Development and Validation of a Roadmap to Assist the Performance-Based Early-Stage Design Process of Adaptive Opaque Facades," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-27, December.
    2. Serena Viola & Donatella Diano, 2019. "Repurposing the Built Environment: Emerging Challenges and Key Entry Points for Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Paola Pellegrini & Ezio Micelli, 2019. "Paradoxes of the Italian Historic Centres between Underutilisation and Planning Policies for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Deniz Ikiz Kaya & Nadia Pintossi & Gamze Dane, 2021. "An Empirical Analysis of Driving Factors and Policy Enablers of Heritage Adaptive Reuse within the Circular Economy Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Kirchherr, Julian & Reike, Denise & Hekkert, Marko, 2017. "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 221-232.
    6. Thomas Tsalis & Alexandros I. Stefanakis & Ioannis Nikolaou, 2022. "A Framework to Evaluate the Social Life Cycle Impact of Products under the Circular Economy Thinking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-24, February.
    7. Nadia Pintossi & Deniz Ikiz Kaya & Ana Pereira Roders, 2021. "Identifying Challenges and Solutions in Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse through the Historic Urban Landscape Approach in Amsterdam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-25, May.
    8. Cyrine Mrad & Luís Frölén Ribeiro, 2022. "A Review of Europe’s Circular Economy in the Building Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, October.
    9. Zaheer Allam & David Jones, 2019. "Climate Change and Economic Resilience through Urban and Cultural Heritage: The Case of Emerging Small Island Developing States Economies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, June.
    10. Aitana Sáez-de-Guinoa & David Zambrana-Vasquez & Víctor Fernández & Carmen Bartolomé, 2022. "Circular Economy in the European Construction Sector: A Review of Strategies for Implementation in Building Renovation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-27, June.
    11. Yunwei Tang & Fulong Chen & Wei Yang & Yanbin Ding & Haoming Wan & Zhongchang Sun & Linhai Jing, 2022. "Elaborate Monitoring of Land-Cover Changes in Cultural Landscapes at Heritage Sites Using Very High-Resolution Remote-Sensing Images," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-18, January.
    12. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    13. Benedetta Rotondo & Conny Bakker & Ruud Balkenende & Venanzio Arquilla, 2025. "Integrating Circular Economy Principles in the New Product Development Process: A Systematic Literature Review and Classification of Available Circular Design Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-25, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bourdin, Sébastien & Jacquet, Nicolas, 2025. "Closing the loop at the local scale: Investigating the drivers of and barriers to the implementation of the circular economy in cities and regions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    2. Iordanis Eleftheriadis & Evgenia Anagnostopoulou, 2024. "Developing a Tool for Calculating the Carbon Footprint in SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Sébastien Bourdin & Nicolas Jacquet, 2025. "Closing the loop at the local scale: Investigating the drivers of and barriers to the implementation of the circular economy in cities and regions," Post-Print hal-04991196, HAL.
    4. Kerem Toker & Ali Görener, 2023. "Evaluation of circular economy business models for SMEs using spherical fuzzy TOPSIS: an application from a developing countries’ perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1700-1741, February.
    5. Jaroslaw Golebiewski & Josu Takala & Oskar Juszczyk & Nina Drejerska, 2019. "Local contribution to circular economy. A case study of a Polish rural municipality," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(3), pages 771-791.
    6. Risa Arai & Martin Calisto Friant & Walter J. V. Vermeulen, 2024. "The Japanese Circular Economy and Sound Material-Cycle Society Policies: Discourse and Policy Analysis," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 619-650, March.
    7. Nadia Pintossi & Deniz Ikiz Kaya & Ana Pereira Roders, 2021. "Assessing Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse Practices: Multi-Scale Challenges and Solutions in Rijeka," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-20, March.
    8. Van Phuc Phan, 2024. "Is a Circular Economy Model for a Developing Country Feasible? A Discussion from the Perspective of Mekong Delta of Vietnam," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 63-74, March.
    9. Amir Latif & Martha Fani Cahyandito & Gemilang Lara Utama, 2023. "Circular Economy Concept at the Micro-Level: A Case Study of Taruna Mukti Farmer Group, Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, February.
    10. Ivan Deviatkin & Sanna Rousu & Malahat Ghoreishi & Mohammad Naji Nassajfar & Mika Horttanainen & Ville Leminen, 2022. "Implementation of Circular Economy Strategies within the Electronics Sector: Insights from Finnish Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-11, March.
    11. Ángela Triguero & María C. Cuerva & Francisco J. Sáez‐Martínez, 2022. "Closing the loop through eco‐innovation by European firms: Circular economy for sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2337-2350, July.
    12. Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Inés Suárez-Perales & Dante I. Leyva-de la Hiz, 2019. "Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-15, March.
    13. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Saudi‐Yulieth Enciso‐Alfaro, 2025. "Women and circular transition in agri‐food industry: The commitment to gender diversity as an engine of change," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 1044-1067, February.
    14. Castro-Lopez, Adrian & Iglesias, Victor & Santos-Vijande, María Leticia, 2023. "Organizational capabilities and institutional pressures in the adoption of circular economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    15. Chembessi Chedrak & Gohoungodji Paulin & Juste Rajaonson, 2023. "“A fine wine, better with age”: Circular economy historical roots and influential publications: A bibliometric analysis using Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1593-1612, December.
    16. Camila Kolling & José Luis Duarte Ribeiro & Donato Morea & Gianpaolo Iazzolino, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and circular economy from the perspective of consumers: A cross‐cultural analysis in the cosmetic industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1226-1243, May.
    17. Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & Shauhrat S. Chopra, 2022. "Leveraging Blockchain and Smart Contract Technologies to Overcome Circular Economy Implementation Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    18. Bas Wouterszoon Jansen & Anne van Stijn & Vincent Gruis & Gerard van Bortel, 2022. "Cooking Up a Circular Kitchen: A Longitudinal Study of Stakeholder Choices in the Development of a Circular Building Component," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    19. Buyukyazici, Duygu & Quatraro, Francesco, 2025. "The skill requirements of the circular economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    20. Gilbert Silvius & Aydan Ismayilova & Vicente Sales-Vivó & Micol Costi, 2021. "Exploring Barriers for Circularity in the EU Furniture Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-25, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6403-:d:1700564. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.