Reuse of vacancy
83 places in the atlas
Community-driven conversion of vacancies: abandoned houses, closed schools, factories, stations, barracks and hospitals brought back to life with collective uses.
Japan13
Chiiori / Valle de Iya篪庵
Miyoshi, Tokushima · Shikoku
A 300-year-old thatched farmhouse, pioneer of minka renovation in Japan.
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceFukuoka Growth Nextフクオカグロースネクスト
Fukuoka · Kyushu
The former Daimyo primary school, closed through school consolidation, renovated in 2017 into a startup support facility within the City of Fukuoka's…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceHAGISO / hanare萩荘
Yanaka, Tokio · Kanto
A 1955 wooden apartment building saved from demolition and reborn as "Tokyo's smallest cultural complex".
VerifiedSee place →Art and territorySpaceHajimari Art Centerはじまりの美術館
Inawashiro, Fukushima · Tohoku
A 130-year-old former sake distillery renovated as a small art brut museum with a vocation for social inclusion and community ties.
VerifiedSee place →Third placeSpaceInari-yu / Sento & Neighborhood稲荷湯
Kita, Tokio · Kanto
The NPO Sento & Neighborhood is restoring this 1930 bathhouse (on the WMF 2020 Watch List) and turned an adjacent century-old nagaya into a community…
VerifiedSee place →Art and territorySpaceInujima Art House Project犬島
Isla Inujima, Okayama · Chugoku
Low-rise art pavilions woven into the hamlet and a museum in a former copper refinery.
Partially verifiedSee place →Spain12
Astra
Gernika · Basque Country
Gernika's former arms factory converted, through youth and neighbourhood initiative, into a "social creation factory" co-managed with the town counci…
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceCan Batlló
La Bordeta, Barcelona · Catalonia
A 19th-century factory precinct recovered through neighbourhood pressure ("tick-tock, Can Batlló") and run communally: people's library, carpentry, b…
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceCSA La Tabacalera
Lavapiés, Madrid · Madrid
The former Embajadores Tobacco Factory, partly ceded as a self-managed social centre: workshops, rehearsals, a garden, screen printing and assemblies…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceGeltoki
Pamplona · Navarre
Pamplona's former bus station converted into a space for social economy and sustainable food: a producers' market, a gastroteca, activities.
VerifiedSee place →Art and territorySpaceHarinera ZGZ
San José, Zaragoza · Aragon
An abandoned industrial flour mill turned into a community culture space governed three ways by the administration, a collective of cultural agents a…
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceLa Casa Invisible
Málaga · Andalusia
A 19th-century mansion in central Málaga turned into a citizen-run social and cultural centre: critical thought, music, crafts and the defence of the…
VerifiedSee place →France26
Base 11/19
Loos-en-Gohelle · Hauts-de-France
A former mine pit closed in 1986 in the town of Loos-en-Gohelle, converted into a reference hub for sustainable development with intensive resident p…
Partially verifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceBLIIIDA
Metz · Grand Est
A former three-hectare bus depot in Metz, handed over to artists in 2013 during a Nuit Blanche and later transformed by the association TCRM Bliiida…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceCoco Velten
Marseille · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Temporary occupation of a former public building in central Marseille, led by Yes We Camp with Groupe SOS and Plateau Urbain.
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceDarwin Écosystème
Bordeaux · Nouvelle-Aquitaine
A former 19th-century military barracks, handed over in 2008 and transformed since 2011 into an ecological transition ecosystem with coworking space,…
Partially verifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceHôtel Pasteur
Rennes · Bretagne
A former dentistry faculty from the late 19th century, without university use since 1967 and converted since March 2021 into a third place led by the…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceLa Californie
Toucy · Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
A former industrial friche in Toucy transformed since 2018 by three local associations and residents into a space for making, experimentation and enc…
VerifiedSee place →Italy23
BASE Milano
Milán · Lombardia
BASE Milano occupies 12,000 square metres of the former Ansaldo factory, in the Tortona district, following a public competition run by the city coun…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceCAOS, Centro Arti Opificio SiriCAOS - Centro per le Arti Opificio Siri
Terni · Umbria
The former Siri chemical factory in Terni, acquired by the city council between 1997 and 2002 and converted since 2009 into a 5,600-square-metre cont…
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceCascina Cuccagna
Milán · Lombardia
This 17th-century farmhouse, municipal property since 1984, was abandoned and declared uninhabitable in the 1990s.
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceCavallerizza Reale
Turín · Piemonte
A 17th-century baroque complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, occupied since 2014 by a citizens' committee demanding cultural and civic use against i…
Partially verifiedSee place →Art and territorySpaceCittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto
Biella · Piemonte
The artist Michelangelo Pistoletto founded Cittadellarte in 1998 in the former Lanificio Trombetta in Biella, a refurbished textile factory, to posit…
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceEx Asilo FilangieriL'Asilo
Nápoles · Campania
A former 16th-century convent and asylum occupied in 2012 by cultural workers during the Naples theatre festival.
VerifiedSee place →Thailand8
Baan Luang Rajamaitriบ้านหลวงราชไมตรี
Chanthaburi · East
House of about 150 years that belonged to a local aristocrat, on the Chanthaburi riverbank, restored as an inn and museum with money from more than 5…
Partially verifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceChao Phraya Sky Parkสวนลอยฟ้าเจ้าพระยา
Bangkok (Khlong San y Phra Nakhon) · Bangkok
A linear park of about 280 metres opened in 2020 on the central span of a rail viaduct left abandoned for some thirty years after the Lavalin project…
VerifiedSee place →Art and territoryNeighbourhood or villageCharoenkrung y Talat Noiย่านสร้างสรรค์เจริญกรุง
Bangkok (Bang Rak y Samphanthawong) · Bangkok
A historic riverside neighbourhood along Bangkok's first modern street, declared a creative district by the state after the TCDC design centre moved…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceChiang Mai Urban Farmสวนผักคนเมืองเชียงใหม่
Chiang Mai · North
A dump used for about twenty years beside the Mae Kha canal, turned into a community farm in 2020, when the pandemic left thousands of tourism worker…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceHub Ho Hin, el molino rojoโรงสีแดง ฮับ โฮ่ ฮิน
Songkhla · South
Steam rice mill founded in 1914 by Songkhla's inner harbour, later a Japanese medical store during the occupation, an ice factory and a fishing pier.
Partially verifiedSee place →Art and territoryProjectKhon Kaen Manifestoขอนแก่นแมนิเฟสโต้
Khon Kaen · Northeast (Isan)
Grassroots biennial set up in 2018 to decentralise Thai contemporary art from the north-east.
Partially verifiedSee place →Laos1
Related events See the theme Third places and tiers-lieux →See the theme Rural life and depopulation →
OctoberMake 2026, Rennes
Rennes · France
Tenth edition, co-organised with LabFab, under the theme 'Des makers et des lieux face à l'urgence': how fablabs and maker spaces respond to climate,…
OngoingSee the event →12 to 14 October 2026Participatory urbanism and placemakingEuropean Week of Regions and Cities 2026
Bruselas · Belgium
24th edition, fully in person in Brussels, under the motto 'Strong regions, strong Europe' with over 110 sessions on how cohesion policy can help eve…
See the event →15 to 18 October 2026Third places and tiers-lieuxConfluenze. Camp Abitiamo Lo Stato dei Luoghi, Ferrara 2026
Ferrara · Italy
The network's autumn camp in Ferrara, titled Confluenze and focused on the human and more-than-human communities of hybrid spaces.
See the event →What they share: Vacancy is treated not as a problem but as ground available for the commons.