Abstract: The adaptive reuse of old buildings as new public cultural spaces is an innovative practice of regeneration of old buildings, which plays an important role in empowering urban and rural public scenes with embedded, reconstructed and renewed new public cultural spaces. In this paper, through online research and case study, nine representative renovation cases in China were selected as the objects of analysis. It investigates and analyzes these cases in terms of the original conditions of the old buildings, functional changes, changes in spatial layouts, and the renovation methods and operation, as well as summarizing the space design characteristics of such transformation. Based on these findings, the study puts forward the following suggestions for the adaptive reuse projects: paying attention to the overall planning and constructing scientific and reasonable transformation programs; exploring local characteristics and highlighting the historical and cultural preservation of important spatial forms; creating diverse scenarios to promote the indepth fusion of industries; and building up distinctive brands to establish replicable and transferable models of practice.

Key words: New public cultural space, Old building, Space design