The ideal office building suitable for tomorrow’s housing. The case of the European Quarter in Brussels

Marta Gechelin

ERES from European Real Estate Society (ERES)

Abstract: During the past years, due to the ongoing economic and financial international crisis that has hit the whole Europe, the production areas at risk of crisis have increased significantly. This phenomenon has generated the presence of disused office buildings that require a conversion and a retrofitting to be reinserted and to be made useful to community. Therefore, it is necessary to intervene in order to give "new life" to this heritage, in social, productive, commercial and residential terms, through the reuse of the no longer used for production properties and the effective reuse of soils. Acting in this way, the aim is to reduce the consumption of soil allowing functional rehabilitation of the already built-up or urbanized areas without the use of new building soils. At the same time, the economic crisis has worsened the socio-economic conditions of an increasing share of population, leading to higher demand for affordable housing and social allowances in the majority of European countries. The retrofitting of office buildings in residential areas could be the answer to the growing demand for new housing. This paper explores the opportunities and challenges of the redevelopment of vacant office buildings into housing units in the Brussels Capital Region. This research investigates the feasibility of this conversion from three different aspects, including the considerations in legal terms, the architectural aspects and the financial viability.

Keywords: Adaptive Reuse; Housing; Office Buildings; Urban Real Estate Development and Regeneration; Vacancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2017_169

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