As architects we conceive of our buildings as finished products, our labours forever immortalised in them. But buildings are never finished; they are subject to multiple changes in occupation, repair and replacement as a result of wear-and-tear, renovation and replanning, the 'finishes' weathering constructs and cosmetic alterations. When buildings are stubborn to adapt they are at risk of demolition, with their materials becoming waste. Architecture does not have to resist change, and does not have to be wasteful. We can instead rethink a building as a long duration 'work-in-progress', constantly developing and changing incrementally under changing conditions of context; designed to be readily susceptible - not resistant - to adaptation and growth. This research collates a set of architectural strategies derived from attributes common within biological ecosystems to aid the design, construction and maintenance of a resilient, adaptive, built environment. These strategies include increasing adaptability through incremental construction; designing capacity for future development; establishing lifespan hierarchies of building layers to aid maintenance and repair; design for disassembly and framing the programme to welcome change. Waste reduction strategies include the adaptive reuse of existing buildings; reinvestment of surplus materials and components of the existing building in its adaptation; use of natural and artificial waste materials and components 'harvested' from sources local to the site ... The research is applied and tested in the adaptive re-use of an existing electricity substation building and site in the city-fringe suburb of Kingsland in Auckland, New Zealand.

"There currently is a shortage and demand for well-designed, high quality living and working developments in Auckland City. The majority of modernistic, small open-planned apartments do not cater for the diversity and discordance of activities within family or multi-person households, who increasingly want to live close to work, transport, entertainment and amenities. This will become progressively prevalent with a raising population, and with it, the need to increase the density of our cities. A solution can be provided with a design methodology driven by selected principles of Classicist planning and spatial composition, within a contemporary aesthetic. Three inter-related principles have been chosen explicitly for their ability to shed new light into the way modern apartments are spatially designed and planned, including: 'volumetric spatial composition', 'hierarchy of spaces', and 'spatial and formal unity'. In the Classicist mindset, a building is constructed functionally by separate spatial volumes; their position determined by the relationships required to each other; through direct connection, hierarchy, and in such a way as to form unity and balance within the whole composition"--Leaf iv.