The aim of this paper is to explain the importance of re‐using valuable, un‐used buildings like outdated factories and revitalizing them by bringing them to the 21st century while at the same time, keeping a piece of their memory and their important contribution through their course of "life". The new users of the transformed building or site as well as the wider public will not only see the romantic and nostalgic side of a revitalized industrial building, but also its functional and financial contribution in the modern way of life where through sustainability of re‐use and respecting something old and neglected, can be brought back to life for something new and exciting. This paper will explore the proposal of incremental transformation of abandoned industrial buildings attempting to activate and reintegrate these structures in the socioeconomic system according to the emerging needs of the industry. The aim of this paper is to promote the significance of a smooth transition from the building’s past use to the new function by always maintaining a piece of “memory” of function. Through this re‐use of space a sustainable strategy arises, where cost efficiency and recycling of an already built structure through awakening buildings and people’s memory, becomes a strategy of design development where previous users are called to remember and re‐interpret and new to explore and learn. Factory Sopaz is an industrial complex located in Nicosia the capital of Cyprus and currently producing aliment for several animals. Due to the fact that the factory was build in 1970, it deals with issues of infrastructure concerning the technology that supports the production of the factory and also the building fabric that seems to become weaker through the years. As result the company questions the future of the complex where either they will renew it again as factory by upgrading the technological equipment or demolish and sale the property so they can move their industry to a new region outside the city. Studies reveal the building’s architectural and memory value where firstly the building poses a great modern structure, constructed fully of fair face concrete where in the other hand the memory of the building become so strong in area, nominating the building as landmark, resulting to name the whole area with the building’s brand. Following then the above issues, a strategy of incremental transformation of the complex should be created considering the new program of the building and how this eventually will be succeeded. The first gesture will deal with the surrounding landscape of the factory using the ‘phytoremediation’ technique in order to start the healing of the surrounding soils. This will also make the first statement to the area for the future transformation of the building. Nevertheless during the first 2 years, the above process will take place in the complex until it will finally close. The next gesture will deal with the insertion of new functions and further more the new construction. Since the new function is generated through the issues of the previous one, the strategy now needs to find ways of incremental adaptive transformation of the building fabric. The first gesture will deal with an addition on a section of the building to host the labs, since the structure of the building has another 10 years of life before the need of reinforce. The next step will follow in the next 5 years after the public’s acceptance for the new added structure and will be the several services for the workers of the labs such as administration and library. The strategy will continue with expansion of other functions and further demolition in stages in order to host the rest of the program that will included the auxiliary functions like cafeteria and restaurant and finally residences for the students of the institute. Each stage is calculated to be executed approximately every five years in order to complete in 30 years, since the stages of expansion are six. This will result to a step by step transformation through the years, recycling both function and structure of its predecessor.