Spatial Warmth in Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings as Hospitality Spaces

Adaptive reuse has emerged as a prominent architectural approach in enhancing the building life cycle while maintaining cultural identity and promoting sustainable development. In urban areas, buildings such as historic bungalows, colonial buildings, and aged residential buildings are increasingly being reused to develop hospitality spaces such as cafés, restaurants, and creative studios. These spaces generally have a sense of comfort, familiarity, and emotional attachment to users. This phenomenon is referred to as spatial warmth in this research study. These reused spaces have gained popularity over time, but little research has been conducted to assess the architectural elements in adaptively reused buildings that influence spatial warmth. The research aims to investigate the phenomenon of spatial warmth in adaptively reused hospitality spaces using a qualitative research approach in Bengaluru, India. The research includes a combination of a literature review and primary research based on a survey among forty-six participants and user interviews, along with comparative studies of adaptively reused spaces such as Dyu Art Café, Ajji House by Subko, and Water Monkey Café. The research identifies architectural parameters that influence spatial warmth and proposes a Spatial Warmth Framework for adaptively reused spaces.