Glossary

Terms for Architecture, Green Building & Energy

This glossary includes more than 300 solar terms, as well as hundreds of additional sustainable design and construction terms.

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Adaptive Reuse

Definition: Old buildings often outlive their original purposes. Adaptive reuse, or re-use, is a process that adapts buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features. An old factory may become an apartment building. A rundown church may find new life as a restaurant... And a restaurant may become a church.