Attribute-Based Assessment of Adaptive Reuse in a Listed Railway Station: Building and Precinct Scales at Canfranc, Spain

The Canfranc International Railway Station (Huesca, Spain) opened in 1928 and was listed as a monument in 2002. In 2023 it was converted into a hotel, while the wider railway site was restructured. The aim of this study is to develop and apply an evidence-based attribute-coding framework to document which heritage attributes of a large railway complex are preserved, transformed or replaced by adaptive reuse. The framework is applied through a historical–architectural case study that combines fieldwork campaigns (2010–2023), archival sources and planning documents. Significant attributes are identified in five dimensions (urban configuration, composition, functional organisation, construction and material systems, and landscape character) and coded at both building and precinct scales. In the historic passenger building, the façade composition, the reinforced-concrete structure, the roof and the circulation layout remain legible. The thermal envelope and services, by contrast, were transformed by upgrades designed to EnerPHit criteria. Change is greater in the precinct, where former track fields were replaced by public space, roads and a new operational station, which reduces the legibility of the railway yard. The main contribution is an evidence-linked coding matrix that records change in large station complexes in a consistent way. It supports comparison between cases and may serve as a preparatory layer for stakeholder-weighted multi-criteria assessment. Energy performance, social perception and economic outcomes are not evaluated.