Repurposed architecture plays a key role in recycling old buildings and giving them a new lease on life. If you look around closely, you can come across various examples of old buildings having been transformed into something completely different through smart and creative architectural designs. The fact is, when architecture is successfully repurposed, it helps in protecting the identity of the old building into a new age.
In this collection, we present 20 buildings that have been repurposed quite creatively. Take a look at how old churches, banks, prisons, and even police headquarters have been converted into something drastically different yet quite cool.
1. A former theatre in Buenos Aires has been transformed into a bookstore.
2. This hotel in Indianapolis was previously a train station. Now, it still has an actual train inside with rooms inside each car.
3. This building was used for the swimming events at the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. It is now converted into an amazing water park.
4. An old WWII era cement factory has been turned into a home.
5. This old church has been repurposed into the Dominicanen bookstore in Maastricht, Netherlands. The place is rated in the top 10 most beautiful bookstores worldwide.
6. The Liberty Hotel in Boston was previously the Charles St Jail.
7. The “Tropical Islands” waterpark in Germany used to be a former airship hangar in Krausnick.
8. An old rusty ship in South Korea has been repurposed into a spectacular building with trees and plants.
9. This pharmacy store used to be a bank once upon a time. Now its vault is the store’s vitamin section.
10. A college in Texas that has been converted from a shopping mall.
11. This old Art Nouveau brewhouse in Germany is now a bar.
12. This swimming pool in Surrey is built in an old church.
13. A fancy new hotel in Wisconsin which once used to be a brewery.
14. A hotel in Oxford that has been transformed from a former prison.
15. A jail that has been turned into an events space in Melbourne, Australia.
16. A former courtroom that is now a café in St. Albans, England. The cells have been turned into toilets.
17. A former FBI New York City Headquarters has been repurposed into a supermarket. However, they kept the safe from the old structure.
18. A school library that once used to be a bank.
19. This old indoor swimming pool from the 1930s in the Netherlands has been converted into a fancy apartment building.
20. A grocery store in Canada that was once a hockey stadium.
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