Towards a sustainable transformation of the detached houses in peri-urban Flanders, Belgium

Wouter Bervoets, Marijn van de Weijer, Dominique Vanneste, Lieve Vanderstraeten, Michael Ryckewaert and Hilde Heynen

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 2015, vol. 8, issue 3, 302-330

Abstract: The housing stock in Flanders contains a significant share of detached dwellings. Recent demographical, economic and ecological developments, however, have induced a large demand for other housing types. This paper addresses the resulting issue of whether the adaptation of existing low-density neighbourhoods is possible, and hypothesizes that the presence of a certain NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude among current residents might complicate any planning efforts that would bring about fundamentally different spatial patterns. The paper offers an analysis of the existing residential patterns, focusing on the presence of underused housing. This analytical part is complemented by qualitative research into the acceptability of different possible scenarios at the neighbourhood level. Three distinct strategies have been elaborated for discussion with homeowners. The paper concludes that a top-down projection of transformative strategies needs to be brought into balance with interests of residents, thus capitalizing on an 'overarching interest', bringing into play an alliance of different tendencies.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17549175.2014.909368 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjouxx:v:8:y:2015:i:3:p:302-330

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjou20

DOI: 10.1080/17549175.2014.909368

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability is currently edited by Matthew Hardy and Emily Talen

More articles in Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().