Dunedin’s ‘look and feel’ is defined by the large number of heritage buildings left in the city. These buildings contribute to an interesting built environment, provide a vital link to our past and lend character to our communities. They are a valuable tourism asset, differentiating Dunedin from other New Zealand towns and cities. Many still serve practical purposes as homes, shops, offices, educational institutions, industrial sites, municipal buildings, and places of culture and worship.
However, many of Dunedin’s former commercial and industrial buildings are unused or under-utilised and this threatens their survival. Dunedin residents have said that preserving this inheritance of heritage buildings is important. The best way to preserve our heritage buildings is to give them a sympathetic new use.
Adaptive re-use involves making sympathetic, but potentially significant, changes to the building so it can be used for a new purpose.
The most successful built heritage adaptive re-use projects are those that best respect and retain the building’s heritage significance and add a contemporary layer that provides value for the future. Sometimes adaptive re-use is the only way that the building’s fabric will be properly cared for, while making better use of the building itself. Where a building can no longer function with its original use, adapting it to a new use may be the only way to preserve its heritage significance.
The Dunedin City Council continues to promote the adaptive re-use of heritage buildings and provides incentives for building owners undertaking re-use. We provide free advice on heritage re-use, and for larger heritage re-use projects, can bring together joint consent working groups to smooth your development progress.
We also run the annual Dunedin Heritage Awards for the re-use of heritage buildings. For more information please check our heritage awards.