Urban Alchemy

URBAN ALCHEMY

Transforming Spaces, Empowering Communities

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Housing & Urbanism) in the Architectural Association School of Architecture

Tutors:

Jorge Fiori

Elena Pascolo

Stephen Sinclair

Student:

Yasmina Saadeddine Arafat

20th of September, 2024

This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance, support, and encouragement of so many wonderful people.

A heartfelt thank you to the tutors at the Housing & Urbanism program. Your dedication have inspired me beyond words. A special thank you to Elena, Jorge, and Steve— I am truly fortunate to have learned from you, and your impact on my work and personal growth is immeasurable.

To my incredible H&U friends, (especially the five guys group) you have been more than just classmates; you have been my family away from home, and you will always hold a special place in my heart.

To my beloved family and friends back home, words cannot express how much your love and support have meant to me. Even from afar, your constant motivation and faith in me kept me going, especially during the toughest times.

And to my fiancé, Karim, you have been my rock throughout this entire process.

Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for being part of this journey with me. I carry your support with me in every step I take.

ABSTRACT

Adaptive reuse benefits are usually widely discussed, providing sustainable alternatives to demolition and new construction, and repurposing existing buildings for new uses, these are points of interest to urbanists and environmentalists. It is true that it can be an appropriate strategy for urban regeneration, but often is accompanied with social side effects, displacement being one of them.

This thesis argues that displacement from adaptive reuse projects is linked to the nature of the project’s spatial, social, economic, and environmental dimensions and that studying these affinities is fundamental to understanding how architecture will contribute to inclusive forms of urban regeneration or reinforce social inequalities.

The spatial aspects and context of a project are crucial: the location of a project, its size and scale, and its integration within existing urban environments can all affect its social impacts. However, displacement is not only a matter of spatiality; it also has more general socio-economic and environmental causes, such as the availability of affordable housing, the economic situation in a specific area, and environmental factors.

Architecture has the power to transform not only spaces but also communities and social relations. The impacts of multidimensional gentrification are often accelerated by the relationship between architecture and its context. Structural transformations influenced by space will strengthen the risk of displacement, the consequent uprooting and forced mobility.

Although adaptive reuse can be an effective tool for urban regeneration, its success will depend on whether the various intersecting spatial, social, economic and environmental outcomes are addressed, envisioned, mitigated and facilitated. The thesis further questions whether commitments to sustainability, inclusivity and community empowerment can hold out under the competitive pressures of global financial markets, and against the demand for high-end urban development in a metropolis that cannot absorb all its aspirations of hyper-modernity? Or will they instead be overshadowed by displacement and gentrification, which they initially sought to counteract?

Introduction

Chapter 1: ‘Adaptive Reuse’ in relation to ‘Displacement’

Environmental Impacts of Adaptive Reuse

Economic Impacts of Adaptive Reuse

Social Impacts of Adaptive Reuse

Chapter 2: Design Moves and Factors in Adaptive Reuse

La Borda, Barcelona, Spain

Granby Four Streets, Liverpool, UK

Buiksloterham, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Mares Madrid, Madrid, Spain

The Politics of Scale and Spatial Strategy

The Role of the State and Wider Policy Frameworks

Interplay in the Reassembley of Economic Processes

Conclusion

List of Figures

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

To address the environmental, economic and social challenges facing our societies, cities should adopt alternative approaches to become more sustainable. In this respect, the building sector forms the foundation for the social and economic life of communities, as well as constituting an important part of communities’ environmental footprint. This sector shapes how people live, work and interact. Buildings account for nearly half of all material extraction, over half of energy used, and account for over 30 per cent of water use and waste produced in the European Union1 . They also impact social life within cities; the way buildings are designed and planned shapes access to economic opportunities, community cohesion, safety and general quality of life.

In order to improve resource efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve socioeconomic outcomes, the ways in which buildings are designed, constructed, used and ultimately deconstructed require reimagining, where there are many different strategies for this, each has different positive and negative social, environmental and economic impacts. One practice that has emerged quite prominently is as ‘adaptive reuse’. Adaptive reuse broadly involves refurbishing buildings constructed for older programs for new purposes. Historically, older buildings often have been tended towards demolition either due to the belief that new developments are more valuable or because buildings are seen as outdated or inefficient2. However, the trend towards adaptive reuse has been growing more recently.

1 “European Framework for Sustainable Buildings,” Environment, 2019, https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/buildings.htm.

2 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald, February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02632770710716911/ full/html, 10.

Adaptive reuse has both advantages and disadvantages from environmental, economic, and social perspectives. By utilizing material already embedded in existing structures, adaptive reuse reduces the need for new resources needed in construction, hence leading to significant emission savings3

The adaptive reuse of buildings, structures and areas has been studied in a wide range of scientific and academic literature, from the general aspects of reuse to specific examples, economics studies, architectural to sociological investigations. However, the social side effects of adaptive reuse, and its association to displacement and gentrification are less discussed. The question of displacement is associated with the spatial nature of the project, yet it has to deal with social, economic and environmental factors.

This dissertation looks into the spatial strategies that allowed adaptive reuse to become a resource for keeping the residents rather than displacing them, through analyzing four exemplars: La Borda, Granby Four Streets, Buiksloterham and Mares Madrid. Although those cases differ in scale; from infill, to street and block, to neighborhood regeneration, to a more city-wide scale, they still proved to share some commonalities that contributed to their success. Those cases share a participatory aspect, through the engagement of the local community which is consistent in all of them. Moreover, even if the situation of land was different among them, they all found a proper solution in dealing with this issue. In addition to that, they shared an environmental concern where

3 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald, February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02632770710716911/ full/html, 10.

1 The Evolution of London Docklands. From working class district to luxurious bottom up development (Upper image in 1989, Bottom image in 2018)

they all used the existing form, place, community, or even urban tissue as a resource in different scales and capacities.

Interesting enough, there are many other cases where adaptive reuse was accompanied with negative outcomes, among those is the Royal Docklands in London (1980-1990), which happens to relate to the scale of the cases for variety of reason, yet it lacked the balance between the social and spatial dynamics of regeneration.

a radically different economic landscape from the one it had experienced before industrialization, but it was also harmful to the raised property values and the shrinking supply of affordable homes. The compounding effect of taxation and benefit cuts, and continuing social stigma against council tenants also made it difficult for many long-standing working-class communities to remain in Docklands. Areas previously occupied by dockworkers, such as Wapping and the Isle of Dogs, for example, were replaced by luxury development resulting in gentrifying the area5 .

1-2

The Docklands suffered a steep decline as part of the deindustrialization of the late-20th century, leading to economic decline, high levels of unemployment, and sections of severe dereliction. This has paved the way for a rise in neoliberal policies instituted through the 1980s by the prime minister Margaret Thatcher. These policies brought in real estate speculation and a market-led development, where the project was purely political, tabula rasa and lacked any social engagement4 .

Thatcher’s government gave the LDDC (London Docklands Development Corporation) the powers to instigate a huge transformation of the area based on a market-led redevelopment, culminating in the creation of Canary Wharf and turning Docklands into an international business center. Not only did this transformation superimpose on the area

4 Smith, Adrian. “Political Transformation, Urban Policy and the State in London’s Docklands.” GeoJournal, Old Trends and New Impulses in Europe’s Urban Affairs, 24, no. 3 (July 1991): 46.

5 Smith, Adrian. “Political Transformation, Urban Policy and the State in London’s Docklands.” GeoJournal, Old Trends and New Impulses in Europe’s Urban Affairs, 24, no. 3 (July 1991): 46.

The redevelopment of the Docklands, however, wasn’t a single, one-size-fits-all approach; it involved multiple interventions, including adaptive reuse strategies. The conversion of Wapping Warehouses into luxury flats for residential use, for instance, led to the displacement of the local community. The scale of these warehouses can be compared to La Borda, where a different, contextually sensitive approach has yielded more positive outcomes. Similarly, examining the street and block-level interventions at Granby Four Streets, where the focus was on reviving an existing neighborhood, offers a productive contrast to speculative developments like Narrow Street or the working-class terraces of Mudchute in Docklands. In these areas, the insertion of upmarket, highvalue dwellings and the subsequent displacement of original residents redefined social diversity, limiting it to those who could afford to remain after regeneration. The original communities, such as the naval families that once formed the workingclass roots of the Isle of Dogs, have largely been obscured by the rise of Canary Wharf, which now dominates the skyline and economy, often at the expense of those forced to leave.

The adaptive reuse of Docklands shows how neoliberal policies can shape and control the definition of regeneration to follow only their priorities. The transformation of working-class neighbourhoods into elite zones of financial and housing services reaffirms the more global issue of space production as a capitalist commodity, where ‘regeneration’ often simply means displacement, gentrification and, as David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre theorize, ‘spatial fixes’.

These criticisms highlight the deeper structural problem of global uneven development and the rise of inner cities not only in London’s Docklands, but in urban regeneration schemes the world over, from Urban Enterprise Zones (UOE) to Free Economic Zones (FEZs) and growth initiative programs that have failed to tackle the social sustainability drivers that support ongoing and notable structural spirals of social inequality. The enduring legacies of these case studies remind us that future urban projects must attempt to sidestep the dangers of deregulation and displacement that lead to social polarization.

The case of Buiksloterham offers a different model of regeneration, shifting the focus from purely economic goals to more environmental and flexible - adaptable types, with a strong emphasis on participatory, communal life and environmental sustainability. This approach stands in contrast to the broader redevelopment of Docklands, where economic priorities have often overshadowed environmental and social considerations. As a result, Docklands is now characterized by significant inequality and social polarization, with the benefits of regeneration largely accruing to new, more affluent residents and businesses, rather than the original working-class communities.

On a broader scale, the contrast between Mares’ community-focused vision of resilience and the corporate-led, top-down development of Canary Wharf is stark. Although both are massive urban development projects, Canary Wharf was developed as a ‘new city,’ creating an enclave for high-income professionals, detached from the rest of the city. In contrast, MARES emphasizes local resourcefulness and inclusivity, aiming for a more socially sustainable model.

In this way, adaptive reuse could be more than a simple neoliberal bulldozer of redevelopment. If it was done equitably and inclusively, it could be a force for the good in city life as a whole. The key to unlocking its potential is to develop alternative models for adaptive reuse that avoid the pitfalls of neoliberal regeneration in the marketplace. It is these alternative models that cities now need to prioritize in analyzing any sort of adaptive reuse.

This dissertation will then examine the spatial strategies beyond mere participatory roles in the cases that led to positive outcomes in terms of economy, politics, community, context, and time, exploring how these approaches can achieve social inclusivity while scaling up.

CHAPTER ONE

‘Adaptive Reuse’ in relation to ‘Displacement’

As resources are getting scarce6, adaptive reuse of buildings is gaining more attention and becoming more adopted in different regions7. As it becomes more popular, its areas of application also become more diverse, making it challenging to develop a common meaning of what it is or what it implies. It is a strategy that integrates different domains and processes; from architecture to urbanism to planning to development to preservation to activism; as it is influenced and influences many social, economic, political, and environmental factors. According to Aldo Rossi, in his book Architecture of the City, urban artifacts (structures) surpass their immediate function and become important parts of the city’s collective memory. They accumulate layers of historical and cultural significance, where this continuity reflects the evolving identity of the urban environment.

6 The United Nation has stated recently, in its Global Resource Outlook released in 2024, that we are consuming more resources than the earth can provide.

Madeleine Hewitt, “Global Resources Dwindling as Demand Rises,” Population Matters, May 8, 2024, https://populationmatters. org/news/2024/03/global-resources-dwindling-as-demand-rises/#:~:text=The%20UN%20recently%20released%20its,demand%20set%20to%20rise%20further.

7 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald , February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02632770710716911/ full/html, 4.

Examples of this process, include the Roman Fora and the Palazzo della Ragione. Both these monuments have been adapted to different functions over the years. But their monumental presence has helped them to survive and serve, over time, as important markers of collective memory and civic life. Not only are these buildings a testimony to their past, they are also an evidence of a built environment that responds to changing social, political and functional demands and that does so while maintaining continuity in the fabric of the city.

Although, until recently ‘adaptive reuse’ started to gain more and more popularity, it is not quite a modern development. The reuse of buildings was seen during the Renaissance period and even during the French Revolution. However, the reuse in those eras was more focused on the functional use, where later applications was influenced by value and environmental benefit8.

8 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02632770710716911/ full/html, 6.

After the French Revolution9, issues regarding public ownership of buildings started to rise. At that period architect Viollet-le-Duc, started to do a lot of restoration work, to either preserve the structures or rehabilitate them to new uses. In his book, The Foundations of Architecture, Violletle-Duc stated that the best way to preserve a building, is to adapt it to new uses10. This included adding new sections, removing parts, etc.

On the contrary, this approach was criticized by other architects, who saw that preservation only occurs through keeping the original form. This can be seen in the British approach to preservation (mainly seen in the writings of John Ruskin) which is characterized by a strong emphasis conserving structures in their original form, while allowing for sensitive adaptation to contemporary needs. He describes efforts of restoration similar to ones conducted by Viollet-le-Duc as a ‘destruction’11 .

No matter how those two ideologies counter

9 The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period of profound upheaval in France, driven by economic hardship, social inequality, and a desire for political reform.

10 Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Foundations of Architecture: Selections from the Dictionnaire Raisonne (George Braziller, 1996), 222.

11 John Ruskin and Russell Sturgis, The Seven Lamps of Architecture: Architecture and Painting (New York: D. Appleton and Co, 1899), 148.

argue each other, they both come to one stand when it comes to destruction. Emerging in the early 20th century, pioneers of functionalism viewed that structures that don’t fit their intended purpose, can be demolished. This aligned with the capitalist drive for economic growth and modernization, which was at its peek in mid 20th century. This approach can be described as ‘creative obsolescence’ or ‘creative destruction’, focusing on knocking of structures and building again. Among those projects, was the Plan Voisin by Le Corbusier. Proposed in 1925, the project was an ambitious urban redevelopment scheme for Paris. It envisioned replacing much of the city’s historic center with 18 high-rise towers surrounded by green spaces, modern infrastructure, and wide boulevards. Modernists were obsessed with the future, so they isolated themselves from historic monuments and saw them as barriers to urban development12. This is contrasted by the Beaux-Arts tradition which celebrated historical continuity and richness. In 1964, adaptive reuse was introduced as a practice of preservation facilitated by using the structures to more social useful purposes13

12 Bie Plevoets, “Adaptive Reuse as an Emerging Discipline,” Scribd, 2013, https://www.scribd.com/document/436850529/Adaptive-reuse-as-a-strategy, 13.

13 After the conception that buildings if not used to their original purpose has to be demolished, the Second Congress of Architects and Specialists of Historic Buildings took place in Venice in 1964, and introduced the new definition of adaptive reuse. International charter for the conservation of monuments and cites ICOMOS, 1964, https://www.icomos.org/images/DOCUMENTS/ Charters/venice_e.pdf, 51.

before and after Viollet le Duc’s Restoration. This involved reconstructing walls, towers, and architectural detail to revive its historical granduer

urban transofrmation, proposing a grid moderinst skayscrapers and vast green spaces, dramatically altering the city’s historical fabric

More recently, adaptive reuse started to gain a technical approach. This meant that upgrading older buildings should include sustainability factors as fire safety, accessibility, acoustic considerations, thermal considerations, etc. to ensure that older buildings will have similar environmental standards as the new developments14. This can be seen in changing perspectives towards public policies as in the case of Buiksloterham. Public campaigns and awareness groups through the rise of cooperatives also led to the increased awareness in the importance of adaptive reuse.

However, adaptive reuse is not merely technical. As Pier Vittorio Aureli referred in one of his lectures at the Architectural Association in 2015, architecture is also political15. Here, one can argue that adaptive reuse emerges as a site of political contestation. Through the targeted reuse of the built environment, the designer or developer makes a political gesture about how matters of power and priority are distributed across communities, resources and the urban fabric. The renegotiation of this urban landscape necessitates navigating questions of ownership, displacement and the economic forces involved in change. Since

14 Bie Plevoets, “Adaptive Reuse as an Emerging Discipline,” Scribd, 2013, https://www.scribd.com/document/436850529/Adaptive-reuse-as-a-strategy, 23.

15 Vittorio Aureli, “Can Architecture Be Political?,” YouTube, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dd73Sd0xpU.

the questions of what is reused, maintained and revised are inherently and intensely political, so, too, is the act of adaptive reuse itself. At every turn within a building, site or city, adaptive reuse expresses and contributes to the political and social conflicts of the surrounding context.

Henri Lefebvre’s concept of ‘the right to the city’ is also key here, where he argues that urban space is not only a physical space but rather a social object formed by the economic, political and cultural values of society. Adaptive reuse, therefore, has important political ramifications. Choosing which spaces are reused and how they are used reinforces or challenges existing power structures. For example, David Harvey elaborates the commodification of space within capitalist urbanism which strengthens capital over local interests. In Harvey’s terms, adaptive reuse speculative projects reinforce existing power relations, often displacing marginalised communities and stopping the potential of urban spaces to invite diverse inhabitants into its boundaries. If adaptive reuse is indeed a political project, it’s one that can be crucial in actively redressing social inequality.

One of the main factors of increased interest in adaptive reuse projects is land price compared to structure price16. As urban land prices soar, repurposing old buildings often becomes more cost-effective than acquiring new land and constructing from scratch. Adaptive reuse allows developers to save on land costs while revitalizing and maintaining the historical or architectural value of existing structures, making it an attractive alternative in densely populated or expensive urban areas. Moreover, cities are interested in revitalizing their industrial areas, where we see planners giving more incentives to developers who are wanting to revitalize their depressed areas. Among those we can see initiatives in Buiksloterham, or even as discussed before, in the case of the London Docklands17. Adaptive reuse in most of the cases presents a lot of environmental benefits compared to new construction, however the social impacts are not widely discussed.

Adaptive reuse can present challenges because it increases the desirability of an area. Areas or neighborhoods with multiple adaptive reuse

16 Mathew Young, Adapting to Adaptive Reuse , n.d., https://gould.usc.edu/why/students/orgs/ilj/assets/docs/18-3%20 Young.pdf, 3.

17 Bie Plevoets, “Adaptive Reuse as an Emerging Discipline,” Scribd, 2013, https://www.scribd.com/document/436850529/Adaptive-reuse-as-a-strategy, 23. Mathew Young, Adapting to Adaptive Reuse , n.d., https://gould. usc.edu/why/students/orgs/ilj/assets/docs/18-3%20Young.pdf, 7.

projects may have heightened demand for residential and commercial space, driving up property values. There is a tense relationship between value, housing, affordability, adaptive reuse and displacement of the locals. Repurposing materials from existing buildings reduces the need for new materials, which benefits the environment and can also cut costs for the project. However, there are downsides: updating buildings to meet current environmental standards often involves adding features like insulation and HVAC systems, which can be more expensive than incorporating these elements into new constructions. Additionally, while adaptive reuse can enhance a building’s value by imparting a distinct historical character, this increase in value might also lead to the displacement of lower-income residents from the area.

Hence, one can say that adaptive reuse is aligned with environmental, economic and social impacts, and balancing all three is crucial to guarantee that the results remain sustainable.

1.1 Environmental Impacts:

Preserving Energy and Resources in Urban Regeneration

Though adaptive reuse was originally valued for its economic and social benefits, in recent decades its environmental advantages have also come to the forefront. According to Bullen, adaptive reuse offers significant environmental benefits by reducing material, transport, and energy consumption, as well as pollution18. Continuing research on the influence of adaptive reuse shows that its environmental impact (notably the percentage of fossil fuel use and the global warming potential) can be reduced by 20-40 per cent19. Given that only 1.5-2 per cent of the existing building stock within developed nations is new every year, there’s a large potential to reduce the environmental impact by repurposing existing buildings.

One of the most profound environmental benefits of adaptive reuse is the preservation of ‘embodied energy’. The total energy consumption in building production and construction – from material extraction, manufacturing, transport to construction – is referred to as embodied energy, and it can account for around 25 per cent of the primary energy consumed by a building in 50 years, with some studies finding it might be as high as 75 per cent for some buildings20. If we can reuse existing buildings, we preserve this embodied energy and minimize its environmental impact.

Resource scarcity is another major problem that adaptive reuse can help to mitigate, as rising global populations and increasing demand for resources is expected to lead to intensified competition for

18 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald, February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02632770710716911/ full/html, 10.

19 Assefa Getachew and Ambler Chelsea , “To Demolish or Not to Demolish: Life Cycle Consideration of Repurposing Buildings,” Sustainable Cities and Society, September 18, 2016, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/

20 Mark Gorgolewski, Resource Salvation: The Architecture of Reuse (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2018), 23.

water, minerals and other energy resources21. The exhaustion of certain resources, such as gravel, also presents a challenge. For example, it has been predicted that Denmark’s gravel reserves could be exhausted within six years, if current usage levels continue22. The construction industry is a significant consumer of resources. Timber harvesting, freshwater use, landfill waste, carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases contribute substantially to the construction industry’s consumption of resources. While adaptive reuse does require resources and energy in the process of alteration and can generate some waste, it is usually more resource-efficient than new construction. For example, it has been estimated that reusing existing structures produces just 10-20 per cent of the demolition and new build waste23

In spite of the advantages of adaptive reuse, there are also some environmental drawbacks: older buildings might not achieve contemporary environmental performance, therefore the energy and water use might be higher than in the new buildings. Modern materials are often more durable, which impacts sustainability24 That is why it is important to provide non-profit but also environmental subsidies for adaptive reuse projects, thereby adjusting the policy and governance.

21 16 UNEP, “Making Peace with Nature,” UNEP, February 18, 2021, https://www.unep.org/resources/making-peace-nature?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwqre1BhAqEiwA7g9QhikyOrBCXdczMlq_xkBRQoNB9gAfgMjQbF6qlEe52LhsICKiFxgdrRoCHVoQAvD_BwE.

22

23 Gerda Klunder, “Comparing Environmental Impacts of Renovated Housing Stock with New Construction,” Research Gate, 2007, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245309887_Comparing_environmental_impacts_of_renovated_housing_stock_with_new_construction, 4.

24 Assefa Getachew and Ambler Chelsea , “To Demolish or Not to Demolish: Life Cycle Consideration of Repurposing Buildings,” Sustainable Cities and Society, September 18, 2016, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/ S2210670716303869, 234.

6 The M&S Building in Oxford It serves as an example where the owner-occupier prefers to demolish and rebuild a new 21st-century store, aiming for improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact. They argue that adapting the existing structure to meet modern standards would be inefficient in terms of energy use and, over the long term, more environmentally problematic than a complete rebuild.

1.2 Economic Impacts:

Balancing Cost, Value, and Revitalization

When it comes to construction, economic feasibility is a primary concern, and this principle applies equally to adaptive reuse projects. The economic value of adaptive reuse can manifest directly, through returns from leasing or selling spaces, or indirectly, by enhancing local culture and tourism. Researchers have identified various indicators for assessing the economic success of adaptive reuse, such as the establishment of new businesses, local job creation, increases in property values, and tourism revenue25. While evidence on the economic benefits of adaptive reuse compared to new construction varies, economic impacts often depend on the specific context of each project. During the 1990s and early 2000s, adaptive reuse was perceived as cost-effective relative to new construction, although some studies, such as those by Bullen (2007) present contrasting views.

For property developers, managing costs and construction timeframes is crucial, as high interest rates on loans and inflation can significantly impact the overall budget. Adaptive reuse often proves more cost-efficient than new construction, taking about half the time to complete per unit of floor area compared to demolition and new building projects, which translates into substantial labor cost savings26. For instance, it is estimated that rehabilitation projects cost approximately 16% less and are 18% quicker to complete27. This is

25 Edwin Chan and Lee Grace, Contribution of Urban Design to Economic Sustainability of Urban Renewal Projects in Hong Kong, November 2008, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227604029_Contribution_of_Urban_Design_to_Economic_Sustainability_of_Urban_Renewal_Projects_in_Hong_Kong, 10.

26 Edwin Chan and Lee Grace, Contribution of Urban Design to Economic Sustainability of Urban Renewal Projects in Hong Kong, November 2008, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227604029_Contribution_of_Urban_Design_to_Economic_Sustainability_of_Urban_Renewal_Projects_in_Hong_Kong, 12.

27 Fred Burkhardt , “Embracing Adaptive Reuse for Corporate Real Estate,” Trade and Industry Development, 2017, https://

largely due to the existing structural materials and avoidance of issues like asbestos removal and foundation subsidence.

Embodied energy savings also contribute to economic benefits. Embodied energy accounts for 20-30% of a building’s total energy consumption over its lifespan28.By retaining this energy through adaptive reuse, projects avoid the energy costs associated with new construction. However, if a reused building is less energy-efficient than a new one, it may incur higher long-term costs.

Adaptive reuse can sometimes involve significant expenses to bring buildings up to modern standards, such as improving accessibility, fire safety, and energy efficiency. This can make extensive modifications to older buildings more costly compared to new construction. Some developers view adaptive reuse as commercially risky due to uncertainties in the renovation process and potential for decreased rent returns29.

Moreover, job creation is a significant benefit of adaptive reuse, particularly in economically distressed areas. Adaptive reuse is labor-intensive, often requiring more manual workers than new construction. For example, labor costs account for 50% of new construction costs but 60-70% in adaptive reuse projects30. This increased www.tradeandindustrydev.com/industry/embracing-adaptive-reuse-corporate-real-estate-12810.

28 Mark Gorgolewski, Resource Salvation: The Architecture of Reuse (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2018), 127.

29 Assefa Getachew and Ambler Chelsea , “To Demolish or Not to Demolish: Life Cycle Consideration of Repurposing Buildings,” Sustainable Cities and Society, September 18, 2016, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/ S2210670716303869, 250.

30 Donovan D. Rypkema, Heritage Conservation and

7 Granby Workshop: Creating jobs for the locals through training them to produce ceramics, that were eventually sold to global markets

demand for labor can provide lasting employment opportunities in the community. However, job creation benefits may not always stay within the local economy. This process requires skilled labor and in most cases, people that are given those opportunities are not from the locals.

Another economic impact of adaptive reuse is the property value of buildings. Developers often recap their investments through the sale or rental of properties. Adaptive reuse can positively impact property values. For example, studies by the Australian Department of Environment & Heritage have found that adaptive reuse projects often create commercially viable assets31. Additionally,

the Local Economy, 2008, https://www.globalurban.org/GUDMag08Vol4Iss1/Rypkema.htm.

31 Studies conducted by the Australian Department of Environment & Heritage have demonstrated that adaptive reuse projects frequently result in commercially viable assets. These projects repurpose existing structures for new uses, preserving historical and cultural value while generating economic benefits. By reusing materials and integrating modern amenities, adaptive reuse not only reduces environmental impact but also enhances the commercial appeal and marketability of properties, making them attractive investments.

adaptive reuse can positively affect nearby property values. Research on brownfield redevelopment in Milwaukee and Minnesota indicated increases in adjacent property values of 11.4% and 2.7%, respectively32. While adaptive reuse generally has a positive impact, new construction projects have been shown to cause greater increases in adjacent property values. This refers to the concept of improvement cycle33, where initial property rehabilitation triggers further investment and increases property values, is also noted. Despite these observations, the economic impacts will always be context specific, and inclusive of the social impacts.

32 Christopher Sousa, Lynne Westphal, and Changshan Wu, “Assessing the Effect of Publicly Assisted Brownfield,” Sage Journals, 2009, https://journals.sagepub.com/ doi/10.1177/0891242408328379.

33 The improvement cycle is a systematic, iterative process aimed at enhancing performance or outcomes. It involves planning improvements, implementing changes, monitoring progress, evaluating results, and making necessary adjustments. By continuously repeating these steps, organizations or projects can consistently refine and optimize their processes, leading to ongoing improvement and better overall performance.

W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986).

1.3 Social Impacts:

Adaptive Reuse and Community Displacement

Buildings are important parts of our society. They are our homes, schools, universities, healthcare facilities, cultural institutions, our workplaces, etc., so their impact on defining the urban character can’t be underestimated. Adaptive reuse while preserving buildings and urban areas, also offers multiple social benefits. It doesn’t only reduces land consumption, but also converts unproductive areas into community resources. This helps in revitalizing neighborhoods and creating a sense of place34.

However, adaptive reuse can also be accompanied with negative impacts, particularly displacement and gentrification. Gentrification can undermine the neighborhood character that adaptive reuse aims to protect, leading to displacement of original residents. This is what we saw in the case of the Docklands as discussed previously.

Thus, areas that were once seen as unattractive and often stigmatized, especially working-class districts in central urban areas or on the peripheries, suddenly started gaining value. Initially, these areas were appreciated by open-minded liberal artists and professionals who saw potential in what others overlooked. This trend can be traced back to historical patterns such as those observed after the French Revolution, when artists and intellectuals were drawn to certain neighborhoods, creating culturally rich communities35.

34 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald , February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02632770710716911/ full/html, 2.

35 Edwin Chan and Lee Grace, Contribution of Urban Design to Economic Sustainability of Urban Renewal Projects in Hong Kong, November 2008, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227604029_Contribution_of_Urban_Design_to_Economic_Sustainability_of_Urban_Renewal_Projects_in_Hong_Kong, 10.

Haussman’s transformation of Paris is quite relevant in this perspective. He replaced the city’s narrow, winding streets—once a stronghold for revolutionaries—with wide, straight boulevards, and thus he became known as ‘the demolisher’. The same structures also encouraged commerce throughout the city. Napoleon III imagined an imperial city whose avenues symbolized the power of the French empire, and Haussmann brought it into being. Like so many large-scale urban projects, the transformation displaced many residents out of their homes, destroying older buildings to replace them with a fantasia of urban progress. While the wealthy quickly found themselves in new, stylish apartment buildings along these grand boulevards, it was the poorer citizens who suffered36. This appreciation began to spread, transforming perceptions and market dynamics.

Today, even the most basic and profit-driven property agents are keen on these areas. What were once described as ‘artisanal cottages’ or ‘working-class homes’ are now marketed with a premium (Docklands vs. Canary Wharf). These homes, once modestly priced, are now valued in the millions. This newfound attractiveness has significantly fueled the spread of gentrification, as substantial profits can be made by redeveloping and marketing these areas.

36 “Haussmann the Demolisher and the Creation of Modern Paris,” Khan Academy, accessed August 21, 2024, https://www. khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-gardefrance/second-empire/a/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris#:~:text=As%20with%20nearly%20 every%20urban,The%20wealthy%20were%20quickly%20accommodated.

8 9

‘One by one, many of the working class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle classes – upper and lower. Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed’37 .

This is a passage that could have been written today, but it comes from the introduction by sociologist Ruth Glass to London: Aspects of Change, a book of essays by scholars from various disciplines that she put together in 1964. According to Glass, gentrification represents a form of displacement, a kind of expulsion of low-income people from those areas. However, it is different from the traditional urban renewal approach, which involves a tabula rasa method: evicting residents, demolishing existing structures, and building something new. Although building conversions at that period didn’t actually match the concept of adaptive reuse, which is about repurposing for new functions, one can still say that all forms of gentrification are adaptive reuse.

generated significant rent, benefiting the property owners while disadvantaging renters, leading to displacement and social disruptions38. This highlights how areas with potential for adaptable reuse are vulnerable to speculative, profit-driven development.

The question that arises, then, is when to pursue reuse, considering the various factors that can pose obstacles: the cost of refurbishment, slow rent growth, and cultural and social barriers. These factors often influence decisions regarding the adaptive reuse of urban spaces, as they impact the feasibility and success of such projects. As discussed earlier in the economic impacts, high refurbishment costs may deter investment in adaptive reuse, especially in areas with slow rent growth where the return on investment may be uncertain39. Additionally, cultural and social barriers, such as resistance to change or preservation of historical significance, can further complicate the process.

Over time, both gentrification and adaptive reuse have evolved to include further social economic and spatial dimensions. This evolution includes the urban renewal projects like waterfront redevelopment, conversion of city centers, etc. This process increased property values, and

37 Ruth Glass, “London: Aspects of Change ,” wordpress, 1964, https://hakka3.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/glass-aspectsof-change.pdf, 40.

38 Esther  H. K. Yung, Edwin  H. W. Chan, and Ying Xu , “Ommunity-Initiated Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings and Sustainable Development in the Inner City of Shanghai,” ASCE Library, June 28, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.19435444.0000174, 3.

39 Mark Gorgolewski, Resource Salvation: The Architecture of Reuse (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2018), 127.

This coins back to what Joan Busquets referred to as ‘controlled gentrification’ which entails adapting an area without displacing its residents. This involves creating conditions for local users to remain, even as new users and activities are introduced40. Busquets emphasized simple regulatory measures that safeguard tenants’ rights and rent levels. However, Busquets stressed that merely protecting rights may not be sufficient. Instead, creating incentives for residents to stay is crucial. The risk lies in the changing local economy, which could render the area unaffordable for longterm residents, leading to their displacement by market forces. So, the key element to keep the residents is the economic networks that exist and how to achieve compatibility between the existing economy and the new economies that would emerge.

The dual nature of adaptive reuse, its capacity to both revitalize and disrupt, highlights the importance of a balanced and thoughtful approach. The contrast between theoretical frameworks and real-world outcomes highlights the necessity for projects that align not only with environmental and economic goals but also with social equity.

40 Kathrin Golda-Pongratz and Florian Urban, “Beyond Formal and Informal: Mid-Twentieth-Century Residential Architecture in Barcelona’s El Carmel Neighbourhood: Urban History,” Cambridge Core, January 17, 2024, https://www.cambridge. org/core/journals/urban-history/article/beyond-formal-and-informal-midtwentiethcentury-residential-architecture-in-barcelonas-el-carmel-neighbourhood/EF6E34A8B7C8EFFAD6D87E0260997AC7.

CHAPTER TWO

Design Moves and Factors in Adaptive Reuse

Adaptive reuse is not a one-size-fits-all approach; its success is related to different factors. These factors include the ability to stimulate local economic growth, physically upgrade neglected and vulnerable areas, promote social integration and contribute to social justice. Increasingly, another critical factor of success is how well these projects align with environmental sustainability goals, such as those related to the Circular Economy (CE) and urban emissions targets.

Adaptive reuse design needs to align with the existing character and value of the building or structure being reused. It involves understanding the architectural, cultural, and social significance of the site before determining a design strategy.

Socially engaged adaptive reuse approaches are becoming essential strategies in addressing affordable housing shortages and enabling the mainstreaming of alternative housing models. The greater the community’s participation in the economic cycle of the project, the more likely this project is to yield positive results. But also the spatial

influence is as equally crucial. Whether dealing with small-scale, building-focused initiatives, city-block relationships, or city-wide projects, assessing the sphere of influence of the project spatially, and its relation to the existing context is essential.

This chapter examines four exemplary case studies—La Borda in Barcelona, Granby Four Streets in Liverpool, Buiksloterham in Amsterdam, and MARES Madrid. These projects although they vary in scale and context (infill building scale – La Borda, street and block – Granby Four Streets, neighborhood and dockland regeneration –Buiksloterham, and institutional project – MARES Madrid), and each case had its own specificity when it comes to design moves and spatial impact, yet they shared common aspects that led to their success in a particular time and through time.

2.1 La Borda, Barcelona, Spain

Project Context, Cooperative, Land Ownership and Land Use, Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project and Environmental Concerns

When we search for ‘housing crisis in Barcelona’ a lot of scholarly articles pop up. However, the root causes of the crisis (or crises) are not new. Indeed, to understand the problem one should analyze the root causes.

The Spanish housing crisis could be traced back to the Francoist period42. During that time (and mainly because of the failure in establishing a strong industrial economy), the economy in Spain was relying on the touristic and construction sectors. This has led to the promotion of a private home ownership, starting from the 1950’s, leading to a conflict between the tenants and the state. Statistics indicate that by the 1970’s, around 60 per cent of the housing stock in Spain, was privately owned. Embedded in policies to make the Spanish economy integrate more effectively into those of other European polities, and partly related to the processes of market liberalization (labelled as globalization), both residential construction and private homeownership continued to be fundamental to the growth of the Spanish economy. During the significant real estate-fueled economic expansion from 1997 to 2007, the rate of private homeownership in Spain soared, reaching an astonishing 87% by 200743. Financial Institutions found the emerging housing crisis as

42 The Francoist regime in Spain refers to the authoritarian dictatorship established by General Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and lasting until his death in 1975. This regime was characterized by its nationalist, conservative, and anti-communist ideology, and it profoundly shaped Spanish society and politics for nearly four decades.

43 Manuel  B. Aalbers and Cesare Di Feliciantonio, The Prehistories of Neoliberal Housing Policies in Italy and Spain and Their Reification in Times of Crisis, 2018, https://www.tandfonline. com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511482.2016.1276468, 136.

an opportunity to promote ‘housing mortgages’ for low and middle income groups seeking for a place of refuge44. The housing crisis led to the emergence of alternative housing projects in Barcelona, that deal with affordability, and among those is La Borda.

La Borda is a co-housing community housing project, opposed to market-driven and real estate speculative projects witnessed earlier in Barcelona. It has 28 residential units, occupying around 0.13 hectares. Indeed, this project has already become a model for other city groups and a flagship for Barcelona Municipality’s new policy of promoting alternative housing models. As Barcelona’s councilor for housing explained in Barcelona en Comú local government (2015-2019), Barcelona is at the beginning of witnessing a new tradition45 , and those alternative housing initiatives became integrated in the city’s policy framework.

La Borda came about in 2012, in the context of the Can Batlló’s brownfield site reclamation campaign, where a group of neighbors decided to selforganize and face the problem of how to access housing collectively46.

44 Melissa García-Lamarca, “From Occupying Plazas to Recuperating Housing: Insurgent Practices in Spain,” Wiley Online Library, January 29, 2017, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ abs/10.1111/1468-2427.12386, 42.

45 Henrik Gutzon Larsen, “Barcelona: Housing Crisis and Urban Activism,” Contemporary Co-housing in Europe, November 29, 2019, https://www.academia.edu/41121743/Barcelona_Housing_crisis_and_urban_activism, 75.

46 “Lacol: La Borda, Cooperative Housing,” Divisare, accessed August 11, 2024, https://divisare.com/projects/427215-lacol-lluc-miralles-la-borda-cooperative-housing.

11 Protests in Barcelona still ongoing until today requesting to ban tourist housing as it is affecting housing affordability.

2.1.1

Project Context and the Role of the Lacol Cooperative

Can Batlló had been a center of Barcelona’s early industrialization, including textile industries. During the mid-20th century, it became the home of a series of small-scale workshops and businesses. The industrial activities in the area declined after the 1976 General Metropolitan Plan aimed to remove industrial activities from urban zones. Consequently, businesses closed, and the municipality planned to demolish the site for highend housing and a park. However, activists from La Borda and beyond saw the vacant industrial area as ideal for community-driven, self-managed projects. They formed the platform ‘Recuperem Can Batlló: Can Batlló és per el barri’ (Reclaiming Can Batlló: Can Batlló is for the neighborhood) and set a deadline of June 1, 2011, for the municipality to open and transform the area, threatening to occupy it if this didn’t happen. Days before the deadline, a compromise influenced by the 15M movement allowed activists to take over the BlocOnze building at Can Batlló, with some areas set aside for commercial development. This transition turned Can Batlló from an “industrial factory” into a “social factory” – a space of hope47

47 Spaces of hope (as David Harvey has described them) are urban or social environments that are actively testing and cultivating alternatives to the status quo, as well as to mainstream economic or political systems. They serve as platforms for experimentation and transformation, providing a glimpse into how

- for community-led projects. Shortly after the area opened in January 2012, a group of 10-15 activists began developing ideas for alternative housing, aiming to create options independent of the real estate market48. And here, La Borda was born.

This infill project is located on Constitució Street, at the edge of the Can Batlló industrial area, and faces the La Bordeta neighborhood49.

The architectural cooperative Lacol has been involved from the start, motivated by a desire to create an alternative solution amid Barcelona’s severe housing crisis. Founded in 2009, Lacol develops projects that address questions about community, sustainability and social responsibility, “largely through cooperative building practices that are based on shared ownership, horizontal decision-making and cooperation with communities”.

different social arrangements could work and fostering collective efforts towards more equitable and inclusive futures.

48 Henrik Gutzon Larsen, “Barcelona: Housing Crisis and Urban Activism,” Contemporary Co-housing in Europe, November 29, 2019, https://www.academia.edu/41121743/Barcelona_Housing_crisis_and_urban_activism, 84.

49 Andreas Luco, “La Borda / Lacol,” ArchDaily, August 5, 2019, https://www.archdaily.com/922184/la-borda-lacol.

2.1.2

Land Ownership and Land Use

The land on which La Borda is located was granted a 75-year lease by the Barcelona City Council. This land originally belonged to the municipality and was occupied by a factory and had been earmarked for redevelopment. Instead of selling the land to private developers, the City Council offered the land through a public tender, where La Borda Cooperative won the tender. Under this lease agreement, La Borda could develop the land into affordable housing while ensuring that the project remains community owned and operated. The cooperative has managed to build 28 apartments in a 7 storey building. In order to discourage speculative practices and to emphasize the use value of the project, the market exchange value was completely ignored50. The building became an open infrastructure, whose architecture is exposed to the inhabitants, transforming and adapting to the growing and changing needs of the community.

50 “Lacol: La Borda, Cooperative Housing,” Divisare, accessed August 11, 2024, https://divisare.com/projects/427215-lacol-lluc-miralles-la-borda-cooperative-housing.

2.1.3

The development is guided and controlled by the members of the cooperative and the future tenants/ users. Knowing previously who the users are going to be, has forced a reconsideration of the traditional housing model and of regulations. Residents are actively involved throughout all phases: design, construction, and management, through thematic workshops that make them coresponsible for project decisions, as an approach to ensure shared awareness, foster community, and build a strong sense of belonging.

Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project 10-13-14-15

The infrastructures of the common are designed by a homogeneous matrix of domestic units of 16 m², a housing model that is generic, flexible and non-hierarchical, and can be constantly developed by the users themselves. As discussed previously, the housing crisis was a major driver for the cooperative, making housing affordability a key requirement. To address this, they have focused on minimizing construction costs to keep monthly fees low. The strategy involves two phases: the first phase ensured the building meets essential livable standards so that residents can move in, while the second phase allows the community to complete additional improvements over time51 .

51 Henrik Gutzon Larsen, “Barcelona: Housing Crisis and Urban Activism,” Contemporary Co-housing in Europe, November 29, 2019, https://www.academia.edu/41121743/Barcelona_Housing_crisis_and_urban_activism, 88.

This multi-story block structure is organized around a courtyard. The architecture of the building promotes community living and participation through its different communal spaces. What the residents can’t find in their private units, is offered in the communal spaces. Those shared spaces are quite generous, constituting around 25 per cent of the built up area52: the communal kitchen can also become a meeting point, the courtyard can potentially become a working space, along with other amenities. The units organization is also flexible and adaptable to the residents’ uses. Through placing the structure solely on the edges, the architecture offers different housing typologies, that could expand (by merging spaces where you can even add a room from another unit) if needed.

52 “Co-Housing in Barcelona: La Borda,” Architecture Walks and Tours in Barcelona, February 19, 2018, https://barcelonarchitecturewalks.com/co-housing-in-barcelona-la-borda/.

The Project of La Borda is desined around a courtyard. The courtyard becomes a common space, where shared services are also located on the ground floor.

As the units of the block are compact, the generoristy offered in the courtyard allows the residents to meet, work and interact

The structure of the place allows for different unit arrangements. If needed residents can either add units or even spaces. That is why it was important to incorporate the residents from an early stage, as the spaces were custom to their needs.

Common areas become spaces for residents to interact and expand their lives.

To ensure the life cycle throughout the project, sustainability factors become crucial. From the beginning, the aim was to prevent energy poverty for the citizens53. For that reason, the building was optimized in terms of layout, grouping together services and reducing the size of the individual units. Bioclimatic design principles, at the design phase, meant that the building was conceptualized as a passive building, and the solutions required active user-participation in climate management54 This resulted in almost zero energy consumption, and a level of comfort in the living spaces at minimal costs. The design also incorporated wideranging passive bioclimatic strategies, such as a greenhouse-shielded courtyard that captures solar heat for winter heating and uses a stack effect for summer ventilation, airtight windows and doors, material inertia and increased thermal insulation55

53 Energy poverty is a condition in which households cannot afford sufficient or appropriate energy services, such as heating or cooling, lighting or electricity needed to perform basic functions, due to lack of adequate income, high energy prices, or inefficient housing. Without adequate and/or affordable energy services, energy poverty can lead to health or wellbeing problems, or even compromise such basic life functions as education or employment.

54 “Lacol: La Borda, Cooperative Housing,” Divisare, accessed August 11, 2024, https://divisare.com/projects/427215-lacol-lluc-miralles-la-borda-cooperative-housing.

55 “Lacol: La Borda, Cooperative Housing,” Divisare, accessed August 11, 2024, https://divisare.com/projects/427215-lacol-lluc-miralles-la-borda-cooperative-housing.

La Borda, although it was a single small scale – infill – building, it mobilized decision making protocols that were then deposited across other sites. In 2020, the municipality approved another housing initiative, “Sotrac” led by the same cooperative, Lacol, located just 100 meters from La Borda. Directly opposite lies Can Batlló, a cooperative neighborhood hub where assemblies are held. Adjacent to it, Block 12 is set to be transformed into a park, with plans to adapt the existing structure into a greenhouse facility, situated between Sotrac and La Borda. Additionally, a few kilometers to the south, a new housing cooperative emerged in 2021, inspired by Lacol’s approach. The influence of La Borda has permeated not just Can Batlló, but the broader Barcelona area, where numerous cohousing projects started to emerge56.

Sustainability Goals.

The building design includes maximizing south-facing units, optimizing seasonal compactness, using low U-value façade elements, enhancing air-tightness, implementing effective solar shading, ensuring cross-ventilation, and designing thermal mass for summer comfort.

56 “Cohousing in Barcelona,” Issuu, June 1, 2023, https:// issuu.com/actar/docs/cohousing_eng.

17

It promotes a double-aspect design strategy that ensures good ventilation. Most apartments benefit from windows oriented to two opposite sides of the building, which creates effective cross-ventilation and allows for natural cooling, minimising the use of mechanical equipment that generates carbon emissions and improving the indoor air-quality. Outdoor communal spaces were also thoughtfully integrated along the building, including shared terraces facilitating social interaction among residents.

2.2 Granby Four Streets, Liverpool, UK.

Project Context, Cooperative, Land Ownership and Land Use, Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project and Environmental Concerns

Matthew Thompson, in his article “Life in a Zoo,” describes the Granby neighborhood in Liverpool as being caught within a “zoo” of urban regeneration—a space where the clash between top-down state policies and grassroots community efforts creates a complex environment of survival and adaptation57.

2.2.1

Project Context and the Role of the Community Cooperative

18 Granby Four Streets Location within wider terraced houses in Toxteth, Liverpool. Those terraced houses were suffering the danger of demolition, where the other surrounding area was destroyed.

After World War Two, Toxteth became a popular area for commonwealth immigrants coming to settle in Liverpool and became one of the country’s first multicultural communities. Stores of every kind – grocers, butchers, chandlers – fronted on to the streets around Granby58. But then the 1970s economic downturn59 hit working-class and ethnic communities hard, generating high unemployment and racial tensions in Toxteth. And with this, Granby’s commercial vibrancy began to fade, with its Victorian terraces falling into neglect.

57 Matthew Thompson, Life in a Zoo: Henri Lefebvre and the (social) production of (abstract) space in Liverpool, September 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319205292_LIFE_ in_a_ZOO_Henri_Lefebvre_and_the_social_production_of_abstract_space_in_Liverpool, 4.

58 “History,” Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust, accessed August 13, 2024, https://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/ history-of-the-four-streets.

59 The 1970s economic downturn, known as the “stagflation crisis,” was marked by stagnant growth, high unemployment, and soaring inflation, largely driven by the oil crises of 1973 and 1979, which saw energy costs skyrocket. In the UK, this period of industrial decline, rising public debt, and social strife, particularly in working-class and ethnic minority communities, contributed significantly to the deterioration of neighborhoods like Granby in Liverpool.

Life in the Granby area gradually deteriorated. Shops closed. Vacant houses became commonplace. In response, in 1993 the Granby Residents Association (GRA) was formed aiming to stop the demolition of homes in the remaining streets and to provide a community forum for protecting residents. Although some houses were lost, leaving empty lots, the GRA consistently lobbied the council throughout the 1990s, working to save the neighborhood from further destruction. This laid the groundwork for future efforts to preserve the Four Streets. The GRA had another threat to face, when the Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Initiative, launched in 2002 with the intention of redeveloping the Four Streets, targeting the Four Streets for potential demolition and refurbishment. It intended to attract middleclass residents to areas with low market demand. However, it faced heavy criticism and was accused of social cleansing, which threatened to displace long-standing residents. Partnering with the Welsh Streets Home Group and SAVE Britain’s Heritage, the GRA actively campaigned against the HMR Initiative60.

60 “History,” Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust, accessed August 13, 2024, https://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/ history-of-the-four-streets.

By 2010, the GRA was disbanded, leaving the Four Streets more vulnerable to the HMR’s plans. Then in 2010 a new national government was elected and at the same time, a national austerity program took hold. As part of this program, central government funding to the HMR Initiative was withdrawn, stopping its plans for Granby. Despite the uncertainty, local residents took matters into their own hands, revitalizing shared spaces through activities like gardening and rewilding, painting derelict properties, and establishing a summer market that eventually became the monthly Granby Street Market. Given the lack of public leadership or guidance from the council, residents decided to form a new campaign group, to find ways to renovate the houses and improve the are. By the end of 2011, they had formally registered their group as a CLT, the Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust61. The CLT is designed to regenerate vacant housing and other public spaces in a communitydriven, incremental, grassroots way, involving the expertise and skills of the local people, rather than building on speculative models62

61 “History,” Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust, accessed August 13, 2024, https://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/ history-of-the-four-streets.

62 Matthew Thompson, Between Boundaries: From commoning and guerrilla gardening to Community Land Trust Devel- opment_in_Liverpool.

Land Ownership and Land Use

The Liverpool City Council also played a role in this process by eventually partnering with Granby CLT and other stakeholders, as Stewardship Housing and the design collective Assemble. The municipality transferred the ownership of the vacant properties to the CLT at a nominal cost (house for a pound initiative), allowing them to redevelop the houses according to community needs63 . Assemble developed a vision for a sustainable regeneration strategy that worked with the on-the-ground efforts of local residents to improve and restore housing, improve and expand public space, and create new avenues for work and enterprise. The core projects included the renovation of 10 homes, the creation of the Granby Workshop, and the establishment of the Granby Winter Garden64 .

The 10 Houses project was the first initiative by Assemble to identify and refurbish homes on Cairns Street for affordable rental and ownership. The facades of the Victorian terraces remained, but their interiors were modernized and opened up, encouraging a sense of transparency by expanding the living space into the outdoors. The houses were built around 1900 and were typical of their time, with solid brick walls, which were

63 Assemble is a collective of designers, artists and architects, who focus on inventive and collaborative approaches to architecture and urban regeneration. Founded in 2010, their main area of work was creating projects that bring together local residents and groups, often transforming forgotten spaces using a participatory approach to design, with community input a key part of the design process.

64 “Granby Four Streets,” Assemble, accessed August 13, 2024, https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-four-streets-2.

65 “Granby Four Streets,” Eumiesaward, accessed August 13, 2024, https://miesarch.com/work/3583. 2.2.2

mostly load-bearing, and timber for floor and roof structure, as well as for non-load-bearing walls. They all had bay windows with sandstone features. However, these materials were traditionally clad or hidden65. The refurbishment exposed the homes’ history in light of their more recent past.

Removing the first-floor ceiling reveals the intricate detail of the chimney which merges and exits through a chimney stack. The design approach was conceptual and minimal, facilitating a fresh viewing experience by revealing aspects of the houses normally hidden from view. Those aspects that were new – the additions, essentially – used a limited palette of robust and cost-effective materials (tin, concrete, glass), not usually considered for residential projects. And each home was provided with a couple of handmade elements (joinery or furniture) made from materials relating that highlighted the area’s unique character. The front gardens became inhabitable places, where residents started to do gardening and gather around. In such everyday acts of ‘commoning’, people extend the private, domestic boundaries of the home into common property in the public realm, and this common property is shared with others and with the public. The act of domesticating public housing, in this sense, creates what Eizenberg has referred to as an ‘actually existing commons’, one that combines domesticity, privacy, community and public accessibility. These acts of committing the commons blur the boundaries between the private and public and, create spaces in which new forms of ownership emerge, which is always organic and fluid.

2.2.3

Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project

In order to empower the community, and celebrate the area’s architecture and cultural heritage, Assemble founded Granby Workshop in 201566. The workshop is a place where the community learns and produces architectural ceramics. At the beginning, the products were designed for the houses being renovated, including tiles, handles, fireplaces, etc. Residents were taught how to make those products, and with time they achieved a high quality and it grew considerably, to have a worldwide supply capability. CLT main focus is to keep the workshop community oriented, participating in the monthly community market, and contributing to ongoing neighborhood renovations. Assemble, along with different artists and designers, guide the workshop’s vision in producing products that combine traditional craft techniques with experimentation to come up with unique pieces that are different each time67.

Two houses were in a poorer condition compared to other renovated houses in Granby. Assemble combined them and added a glass roof, creating an interior winter garden that serves as a communal meeting space68. This winter garden houses an indoor garden, a meeting space, and artist residencies. This approach transformed the previously private indoor space of a typical terraced house into a public communal area.

66 “Granby Workshop,” Assemble, accessed August 13, 2024, https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-workshop.

67 “Granby Workshop,” Assemble, accessed August 13, 2024, https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-workshop.

68 “Granby Winter Garden,” Assemble, accessed August 13, 2024, https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-winter-gardens.

and community engagement.

The regeneration of Granby was also aligned with environmental concerns. It focused on using the existing as a resource, through respecting the existing urban form and integrating the local economy. The terraced houses became the urban artifacts persisting their form through time and adapting their use, as they are parts of the collective memory and cultural fabric of the area. Moreover, the regeneration fostered a circular economy where the community became an integral part of the economic cycle. The Granby Workshop created a new form of currency and trade rooted in local production and sustainability.

Granby Four Streets exemplifies how adaptive reuse can empower communities, preserve historical character, and stimulate local economic growth through grassroots initiatives. It has encouraged planners and policymakers to reconsider the potential of the urban fabric and the role of the community in sustaining long-term sustainable urban development. It has then inspired other Liverpool regeneration projects to take into account community participation in their plans, and led to the proliferation of other ‘community land trust’ (CLT) schemes across the city, such as Homebaked in Anfield69, showing how small scale projects can become socially inclusive. However, can we achieve this inclusivity while scaling up?

69 Homebaked Community Land Trust (CLT) was established in 2012. It was created by a group of local residents in Anfield, Liverpool, who were inspired by the need to save the historic Mitchell’s Bakery from demolition and to revitalize the surrounding area through community ownership and regeneration efforts.

24 When discovered, the floors of the two existing houses had collapsed, revealing striking triple-height interiors with exposed raw masonry. Assemble collaborated with Structure Workshop engineers to maintain the buildings’ unique condition. To stabilize the structure, two bright blue steel rings, inspired by Victorian palm houses, were added to reinforce the walls and create an open garden space.

25 26 The

and the

Assemble’s approach to the Winter Garden aimed to reinvent the traditionally private space of a terraced home into a hub for neighborhood engagement, creating an indoor garden that serves as a unique venue for creative community activities, cultural production, and exchange.

2.3 Buiksloterham, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Project Context, Cooperative, Land Ownership and Land Use, Environmental Concerns aligning with Spatial Moves, Project Influence on Broader Institutional Projects.

As outlined in Chapter 1, cities play a crucial role in fostering a harmonious and sustainable living environment and catalyzing the change needed to address the climate crisis and ecological degradation while ensuring social equity. In this context, the project of Buiksloterham played an important role in transforming an obsolete industrial area into a mixed-use neighborhood, with a strong focus on circular economy. This transformation was done through a series of citywide initiatives of varying scales and types. The project wasn’t then limited to area of Buisloterham, where indeed it also informed further institutional efforts, such as Amsterdam adopting the City Doughnut Model to create a more sustainable and equitable urban environment.

2.3.1

Project Context

Buiksloterham is a polder, built in 1886 with dredged material reclaimed from other parts of Amsterdam North. It was dammed and officially named Buiksloterham around the same time70 Industrial activity in the area did not begin until the early 20th century, primarily due to the lack of rail and road infrastructure, which encouraged the growth of water-based industries due to its proximity to the IJ at that time, Buiksloterham was not part of the municipality of Amsterdam but belonged to the smaller municipality of Buiksloot, within the North region. It was through the reclamation area bought in part to build the North Sea Canal that Buiksloterham’s land disputes were settled and they were added to Amsterdam.

Nonetheless, by around 1913, the area was growing, and the municipality started building housing for the influx of industrial workers that were moving in from the countryside, which explains the early 20th-century neighborhoods of Disteldorp (1918), Asterdorp (1926) and Tuindorp (1927). Throughout the 20th century, Buiksloterham remained largely industrial. However, in the 1980s, the municipality began reconsidering the area’s function and zoning. Over the past two decades, industries have gradually moved out or been relocated, transforming Buiksloterham into the mixed-use residential and working area we see today71. At that time Amsterdam was facing housing crisis, which and reclaiming Buiksloterham’s brownfields was brought into discussion. The 2008 global recession further exacerbated the housing crisis, where the governmental policies shifted towards privatizing the public housing sector, which in turn affected negatively the housing affordability.

2.3.2 Land Ownership and Land Use

In response to the economic and housing crisis, the Amsterdam Municipality initiated the regeneration of Buiksloterham area. The main aim of this project was to transform the industrial estate into a mixeduse urban neighborhood72. Land was offered on ten-year leases to entrepreneurs proposing sustainable urban projects, and housing lots were sold at low prices for citizens to design their own eco-friendly homes. The plan envisions gradually shifting the area’s economic structure from traditional industry to a mix of green, creative, and industries, with integration at the area, block, and building levels73. The municipality initiated this regeneration with an organic approach, changing zoning laws to permit mixed uses and encouraging the development of shared offices and housing. Citizen involvement was key, with architects and designers engaged to create innovative spaces74.

72 Sebastian Dembski , “Case Study Amsterdam Buiksloterham, the Netherlands,” University of Amsterdam, 2013, https:// pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1523659/124693_CONTEXT_Report_2.pdf, 19.

70 “Circular Buiksloterham - Transitioning Amsterdam Tot a Circular City,” Issuu, October 4, 2016, https://issuu.com/delvalandscape/docs/circularbuiksloterham_eng_full_repo, 85.

71 “Circular Buiksloterham - Transitioning Amsterdam Tot a Circular City,” Issuu, October 4, 2016, https://issuu.com/delvalandscape/docs/circularbuiksloterham_eng_full_repo, 86.

73 Sebastian Dembski , “Case Study Amsterdam Buiksloterham, the Netherlands,” University of Amsterdam, 2013, https:// pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1523659/124693_CONTEXT_Report_2.pdf, 19.

74 “Buiksloterham – Amsterdam,” https://commoning.city/project/buiksloterham-amsterdam.

Cityplot Buiksloterham by Studioninedots reimagines urban living in Amsterdam, creating a flexible, self-organizing neighborhood where residents shape their environment. This innovative development fosters a sense of community, integrates green spaces, and promotes sustainability, making it a model for future urban design.

2.3.3 Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project 30

In Buiksloterham, it was the community that used a ‘bottom-up’ approach to guide property development, enable a diversity of housing solutions, including housing cooperatives, to meet their needs for affordable housing. The municipality focused on improving connectivity to the neighborhood and remediating brownfield conditions before residents bought land and began building their homes. As it turned out, the privateled development projects emerged, and grew alongside the robust public-led efforts, creating a cohesive and resilient district. These citywide projects such as Cityplots by Studioninedots and Hackable City were created aligning with the distinctive and circular nature of the area.

The driver of the Buiksloterham masterplan was the city plot concept. Commissioned by the social housing corporation de Alliantie, this dynamic masterplan for Buiksloterham is changing this old industrial district into a new lively part of Amsterdam. Cityplot was conceived as a response to the need for more adaptable urban planning models, moving away from traditional, rigid approaches. From an architectural point of view, this ambition is expressed through an optimized

plot ratio, which accommodates many uses and therefore can host self-built projects, social housing, live-work units or community hubs. Cityplot identifies the ideal plot size as 100 x 100 metres. From an urban point of view, this approach allows for the inclusion of many different actors, such as individuals or groups of people, investors and small developers, favoring a more inclusive form of development. The masterplan keeps its small identity and each inhabitation step can change and redefine residents’ position in the community and city. The increased flexibility of this reduced scale allows for each unit to be adapted to the needs of its inhabitants on a gradual basis over time, so that it continuously evolves in a more economically sustainable way75. It is not a static urban plan with a fixed outcome, but an urban plan that develops itself in time. The interaction between the people living in the area the sustainable systems, and the innovative, futuristic developments, enables the transformation of a vulnerable location into a future-proof and resilient zone76.

75 “Cityplot Concept - Studioninedots,” studioninedots, accessed August 17, 2024, https://studioninedots.nl/project/cityplot/.

76 Cityplot Buiksloterham - studioninedots, accessed August 17, 2024, https://studioninedots.nl/project/cityplot-buik-

Moreover, the development of Buiksloterham didn’t only rely on physical projects, but social engagement through digital platforms, had an equal role. “The Hackable City” is a concept that explores how urban development can be driven by community involvement, leveraging digital tools and collaborative practices. The goal of this research project is to explore the opportunities as well as challenges of the rise of new media technologies for an open, democratic process of collaborative citymaking77.

and collective action towards the identified issue. Finally, there is an attempt to institutionalize the results of these efforts, making them a permanent part of the urban landscape. This process is not always straightforward or universally beneficial, as conflicts can arise between different groups and their interests. The goal is thus to ensure that these community-driven initiatives not only thrive but also align with broader public interests and democratic values78

This research in Amsterdam has identified a sevenstep process commonly followed in these urban initiatives. This process starts with defining a key issue by stakeholders, followed by efforts to visualize and communicate the problem through both online platforms and public manifestations. Engaging the public is the next crucial step, where a platform—ranging from social media groups to dedicated websites—is established for discussion and collaboration. Once the public is engaged, the next steps involve resource pooling sloterham/.

77 “The Hackable City,” Amsterdam Smart City, accessed August 17, 2024, https://amsterdamsmartcity.com/updates/project/the-hackable-city.

78 “The Hackable City,” Amsterdam Smart City, accessed August 17, 2024, https://amsterdamsmartcity.com/updates/project/the-hackable-city.

Concerns aligning with Spatial Moves

In 2013, the municipality of Amsterdam introduced the self-build plots, as a result of the economic crisis, and the lack of commercial real estate interest in investing in the area. It empowers residents to design their own homes, with the development process largely managed by the future residents themselves79.

Among those self-build projects, is Superlofts, which is part of Republica (a micro city made of six volumes within Buiksloterham). The open building movement, which inspired the design of the project, allows for maximized adaptability and flexibility offering the freedom for the residents to self-build their homes from scratch80.

The building can be conceived as a resilient building as it is designed to change with the city’s evolving needs and those of its residents. Unfortunately, as older buildings become outdated, they often remain vacant or underused, leading to wasted space. In the Netherlands, for instance, vacant buildings total five times the number of new

79 “Circular Buiksloterham - Transitioning Amsterdam Tot a Circular City,” Issuu, October 4, 2016, https://issuu.com/delvalandscape/docs/circularbuiksloterham_eng_full_repo, 92.

80 Pilar Caballero, “Superlofts / Marc Koehler Architects,” ArchDaily, April 11, 2018, https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects.

buildings constructed each year. Additionally, buildings that cannot adjust to new demands are often demolished, resulting in significant waste and pollution. Buildings contribute to 36% of CO2 emissions and 40% of energy consumption in the EU81.

The open building approach within superlofts, with a modular and reconfigurable in-fill structure facilitate a circular and regenerative form of construction, where updates are made in separate cycles without having to destroy the building and dispose of materials82.

Superlofts also attracts a cluster of creative and entrepreneurial people who need to be able to integrate their living quarters with an office, studio or commercial kitchen, activities perhaps not possible in standard housing arrangements. This is done by the generous double height offered, allowing the residents to add an extra floor and thus gaining privacy and double functionality.

81 Pilar Caballero, “Superlofts / Marc Koehler Architects,” ArchDaily, April 11, 2018, https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects.

82 Pilar Caballero, “Superlofts / Marc Koehler Architects,” ArchDaily, April 11, 2018, https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects.

31

32 Superlofts showcases a modular housing concept, where customizable loft units offer residents the flexibility to design and adapt their living spaces according to their personal needs and lifestyle.

Superlofts redefines urban living with flexible, open-plan lofts that residents can tailor and expand over time, fostering a sense of ownership and adaptability in a dynamic community setting.

In another context, the De Ceuvel is a circular living lab, almost configured as an informal community. It is a former shipyard in Buiksloterham, transformed into a sustainable and creative hub. Initially abandoned and polluted, the site was revitalized in 2012 when traditional urban development was halted. The Municipality of Amsterdam and Noordwaarts offered the land for 10 years, and an innovative group proposed the “Zuiverend Park De Ceuvel” project. This involved repurposing decommissioned houseboats and using phytoremediation—plants that remove soil contaminants. A biogas plant also converts biomass into energy, while the site serves as a research center for organic soil purification and biomass production.

DELVA Landscape Architecture/Urbanism designed and maintained the purifying park. The project allows creative businesses to operate in houseboats while the land is gradually cleaned. After 10 years, the land will be returned cleaner to the city. The park also serves as an educational and research platform for sustainable principles, with tours and workshops.

Among the self-build plots there is schoonschip which is a floating neighborhood designed to address climate change through sustainable living. The community consists of 46 houseboats, home to over 100 residents, all of which are selfsufficient in energy and water use. Solar panels generate electricity, while advanced systems reuse 95% of water and harvest rainwater for daily needs. Additionally, the neighborhood integrates floating structures for urban farming, food production, and play areas, minimizing food waste and transportation costs. Schoonschip’s typology showcases how urban design can adapt to rising sea levels, creating a model for resilient, eco-friendly neighborhoods worldwide. This development rethinks traditional urban housing, blending technology and nature to make waterbound living not only viable but sustainable.

35

36 Schoonschip emphasizes transparency in both its design and community structure. The floating homes feature large windows that invite natural light, creating open interiors while fostering a sense of connection to the surrounding water.

The houseboats are organized along a central canal. Each home is uniquely designed with ecofriendly materials and technologies, emphasizing individuality while maintaining a unified aesthetic. The floating structures are modular and adaptable, allowing for flexibility in space use.

2.3.5 Project Influence on broader Influence Projects

The project of Buiksloterham, became an urban laboratory for subsequent adaptive reuse and circular economy projects. In 2020, Amsterdam became the first city to announce a commitment to becoming 100% circular, a goal it hopes to achieve by 205083. Together with organizations like the Doughnut Economics Action Lab and Circle Economy, the city has outlined a strategy to achieve zero material waste while ensuring that the social needs of its inhabitants are met. The plan, based on the well-known doughnut model pioneered by Kate Raworth84, is much more than just another net-zero target. It places the planet at the core of the economic model, rather than treating it as an externality. The inner circle of the doughnut represents the basic standards people need to thrive, while the outer ring symbolizes the ecological boundaries imposed by the complex feedback loops that drive our natural processes85.

Amsterdam’s circular strategy, prioritizes sharing and repairing over end-of-life recovery86. It is adopting a three-sided approach to achieving full circularity. They have identified three key areas with significant negative impacts, as well as

83 Kate Raworth, “Introducing the Amsterdam City Doughnut: Kate Raworth,” Kate Raworth | Exploring Doughnut Economics, April 10, 2020, https://www.kateraworth.com/2020/04/08/ amsterdam-city-doughnut/.

84 Kate Raworth is a British economist renowned for her development of Doughnut Economics, a framework that seeks to balance human needs with planetary boundaries. Her groundbreaking book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, introduces a model where the economic goal is to create a “safe and just space” for humanity, represented as a doughnut shape.

85 The Amsterdam City Doughnut, 2020, https://doughnuteconomics.org/amsterdam-portrait.pdf, 4.

86 The Amsterdam City Doughnut, 2020, https://doughnuteconomics.org/amsterdam-portrait.pdf, 5.

areas where the city has the greatest potential for change: food and organic waste, consumer goods, and the built environment87. In Amsterdam, food has the same environmental impact as all other material use combined and is projected to cost €1 billion per year in environmental impact. The city’s plan is to reduce high-impact food consumption and better utilize food waste. Currently, most food waste is incinerated; in 2022, only 5% of organic waste was collected, with a goal to increase this to 30% by 2026 and 75% if funds permit88.

Another critical issue is food consumption. Amsterdam aims to promote the consumption of regionally produced and plant-based foods. Van Amsterdam Bodem is an example, providing a platform that raises awareness of local food initiatives. The average meal in Amsterdam travels 30,000 km from production to plate, so by supporting local producers, the city hopes to reduce transportation emissions and boost local businesses89. Changing food preferences is more challenging as it depends on individual consumer choices. Currently, 60% of the city’s protein consumption comes from animal-based sources, a ratio they hope to reverse by 2050 through awareness campaigns and changes in advertising policies90.

87 Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025 Strategy, 2020, https:// carbonneutralcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Amsterdam-Circular-2020-2025_Strategy_HighRes.pdf, 4.

88 Policy: Food strategy - city of Amsterdam, 2023, https:// www.amsterdam.nl/en/policy/sustainability/food-strategy.

89 “Van Amsterdam Bodem,” Van Amsterdamse Bodem, February 12, 2024, https://vanamsterdamsebodem.nl/.

90 Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025 Strategy, 2020, https:// carbonneutralcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Amsterdam-Circular-2020-2025_Strategy_HighRes.pdf, 18.

Consumer goods are heavily discussed in the context of circularity, especially as they become cheaper to produce, more complex, and harder to recycle or repair. This ties back to the hierarchy of Rs: refuse, rethink, and reduce. Amsterdam’s approach is to consider the lifecycle of products, aiming to prevent the need for new products by encouraging the sharing and repairing of existing ones91. The city’s purchasing power is significant, and Amsterdam aims to lead by example with a target of 100% circular procurement by 2030, meaning any city purchases must be reused, refurbished, or easily recyclable. This top-down approach is expected to drive broader change when the municipality refuses products based on environmental impact.

An integral part of the circular economy is prolonging the life of existing products, which involves the repair industry. The Stadspas city card now offers discounts for repairing clothes and appliances for lower-income residents92. The city also supports a refugee-run textile repair center and numerous repair cafes where people can fix appliances. Another innovative approach is switching from ownership to usership, exemplified by SnappCar, a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform93. The city actively promotes such schemes to foster circular consumer habits.

In the built environment, which accounts for about 60% of the city’s material use by weight, Amsterdam sees significant potential for circularity. Since 80% of Amsterdam’s land is city-owned, the municipality aims to lead by constructing 30 new buildings following circular principles. The city also adopts a “reuse unless” principle in public space development and promotes timber and biobased construction materials94.

Central to Amsterdam’s strategy is the involvement of diverse groups and organizations. The city involves residents through school curriculums, supporting local initiatives, and larger discussion groups. Amsterdam is also developing tools applicable across value chains. CircuLaw is a tool for legal analysis created by Amsterdam and Dark Matter Labs, designed to help policymakers use the law to promote the circular economy. True Pricing experiments involve applying the true cost of a product, including hidden social and environmental costs, to all city investments and procurement decisions95. This approach leverages the city’s purchasing power to drive change and is being tested in grocery stores and cafes.

91 Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025 Strategy, 2020, https:// carbonneutralcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Amsterdam-Circular-2020-2025_Strategy_HighRes.pdf, 18.

92 Applying for a stadspas - city of Amsterdam, accessed August 15, 2024, https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/work-income/apply-stadspas/.

93 “Auto Huren in Amsterdam ,” SnappCar, accessed August 15, 2024, https://www.snappcar.nl/auto-huren/amsterdam.

Thus, the Buiksloterham project leveraged the 2008 economic downturn to implement affordable housing models. By integrating bottom-up community involvement, flexible urban planning, and a focus on sustainability, Buiksloterham has become a model for future urban regeneration efforts.

94 Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025 Strategy, 2020, https:// carbonneutralcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Amsterdam-Circular-2020-2025_Strategy_HighRes.pdf, 65.

95 Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025 Strategy, 2020, https:// carbonneutralcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Amsterdam-Circular-2020-2025_Strategy_HighRes.pdf, 72.

2.4 Mares, Madrid, Spain

Project Context, Land Ownership and Land Use, Implementation Strategies and Project Sustainability, Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project.

Setting short-term goals to evaluate the feasibility and potential effect of long-term objectives can help to drive new relationships towards a shared community within the context of establishing reuse for abandoned buildings.

The crisis of the Spanish banking sector, which began in 2008, had both a short- and a longterm origin; it is sometimes described as a result of the savage logic of financialized capitalism96. Throughout the 1990s, there had been growing macro-financial imbalances in Spain, with a significant rise in bank credit, in particular to the real estate sector. The process accelerated even further in the 2000s. The growth of the savings banks since the mid-1980s exacerbated financial instability: most of them operated under little control by markets and with weak governance. Their business model was unsustainable in terms of transparency and capital adequacy. It was real estate-focused, with high reliance on wholesale finance through Eurodollar markets, repurchase

96 Patrizia Baudino, Mariano Herrera, and Fernando Restoy, “The 2008–14 Banking Crisis in Spain,” The Bank for International Settlements, July 6, 2023, https://www.bis.org/fsi/fsicms4.htm#:~:text=The%20Spanish%20banking%20sector%20experienced,to%20the%20real%20estate%20sector, 4.

agreements (repos) and securitization97. This has led to an increase in unemployment and poverty, in addition to inequalities mainly between the north and south parts of the city. In response to these challenges, estudios SIC and todo por la praxis launched mares madrid project, as a project of urban transformation and resilience98

97 Patrizia Baudino, Mariano Herrera, and Fernando Restoy, “The 2008–14 Banking Crisis in Spain,” The Bank for International Settlements, July 6, 2023, https://www.bis.org/fsi/fsicms4.htm#:~:text=The%20Spanish%20banking%20sector%20experienced,to%20the%20real%20estate%20sector, 10.

98 kat barandy I designboom, “Studios SIC + TXP Scatter a Series of Innovation Hubs or ‘mares’ throughout Madrid,” designboom, August 14, 2019, https://www.designboom.com/ architecture/estudio-sic-mares-de-madrid-todo-por-la-praxistxp-08-14-2019/.

37 Facing economic and environmental challenges, Madrid’s Mares project is spearheading urban transformation through resilience and innovation. By repurposing old buildings into hubs for Mobility, Food, Recycling, and Energy, Mares fosters sustainable development and community collaboration. Discover how these ‘Seas’ are turning crisis into opportunity and shaping a healthier, more equitable city.

2.4.1

Mares is a local urban transformation project to support the social and cooperative economy through the stimulation of productive enterprises and the redesign of the city of Madrid, targeting five priority sectors: (M) mobility; (A) food; (R) recycling; (E) energy and (S) social and care economy. The MARES project is led by the Madrid City Council and nine other partner organizations99.

2.4.2

Land Ownership and Land Use

The project consists of rehabilitating and transforming four Madrid buildings that have been abandoned (an old school in Vallecas as a mar of mobility, a space in Villaverde as a mar of food, a new citizen infrastructure in Vicálvaro mar of food as a mar of recycling and an underused space in the Centre as a mar of energy), turning them into innovation districts distributed across the four neighborhoods.

The land and buildings were previously owned by the public sector (Madrid City Council) and layed disused, and were targeted for rehabilitation as part of the city’s broader strategy to revitalize neglected urban areas. The City still owns the land and buildings, and through a collaboration with MARES they have chosen to repurpose these spaces towards innovation hubs. The City Council grants access to these properties, based on a legal agreement, allowing MARES to upgrade and manage them for public and community benefit. Their target is to bring people and projects together, and projects together aiming to become a prototype of urban resilience generating employment through the development of a social and solidarity economy in key strategic sectors100

99 “Mares Madrid,” cambiaMO, February 11, 2021, https:// cambiamo.net/en/project/mares-madrid/.

100 kat barandy I designboom, “Studios SIC + TXP Scatter a Series of Innovation Hubs or ‘mares’ throughout Madrid,” designboom, August 14, 2019, https://www.designboom.com/ architecture/estudio-sic-mares-de-madrid-todo-por-la-praxistxp-08-14-2019/.

Spatial processes of resilient urban transformation and social economy in Madrid, as illustrated by the Mares project. This initiative repurposes underused spaces into hubs of innovation, addressing key urban challenges through community-driven solutions.

38

2.4.3

Implementation Strategies and Project Sustainability

From the beginning, Mares was envisioned as the most experimental initiative within a broader strategic local policy reform focused on advancing the social and solidarity economy while striving for spatial justice. The project was designed around four key strategies. The first strategy is regenerating underutilized public spaces, which is reusing abandoned public areas and make them available for common use. The second one is the creation of the competencies labs aiming at helping the local communities to face the changing economy. These labs are open to everyone, stimulating a new form of economy and improving the competitiveness and the sustainability of each sector. The third one is promoting territory-based economic innovation by supporting the social economy models that can enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of the local productive systems, creating more jobs in face of unemployment. The last strategy is creating awareness among all the stakeholders with the aim of developing an ecosystem capable of enhancing the add-value for employment and employability all across the Madrid district101.

The economic projects that are supported by mares are now more than 240 projects with cooperatives working in energy retrofitting, food distributions, home care, sustainability and mobility. Mares is also supporting the initiation of ‘secondary cooperatives’ which combine different services

101 Alessandro Coppola, “The Mares de Madrid Project,” UIA, December 2018, https://www.uia-initiative.eu/sites/default/ files/2019-02/Madrid-MARES-Journal%203.pdf, 3.

within one organization102. Among those is the revive initiative. This initiative aims to transform the built environment through retrofitting, focusing on homeowners and public institutions. The team behind Revive is made of architects, economists, engineers, international cooperation, with a commitment to socio-ecological transitions for a greener society. The project’s core is to provide comprehensive consulting services, including auditing, design, construction, and financing. It also emphasizes the social aspects of retrofitting, aiming to foster local small businesses and combat unemployment. By raising consumer awareness, it seeks to unlock economic and social benefits through alternative approaches to traditional corporate models. The main challenges the project faces, revolve around adapting services to social and technological conditions, ensuring economic sustainability for providers and consumers, and developing efficient auditing tools. Mares has provided a platform for collaboration among professionals, facilitated a learning community for resource sharing, and helped establish initial local outreach and business strategies103.

2.4.4

Participatory Process in the Implementation of the Project

The strength of the Mares project relied on the integration with local communities. This means that the viability of the business incubation component depended on how firmly it was embedded in local communities, how it mediated conflict and facilitated community activities. On the other hand, robust community involvement involved building structured relationships with actions such as trade associations and residents’ groups that could meaningfully contribute to local development goals. This community involvement not only helped raise awareness of the project’s goals but also contributed to building a market for the products and services developed by the incubated businesses104 .

In short, Mares came up with social projects which mainly aimed at helping people. Not only did they deploy adaptive reuse strategies in finding smaller infill sites for their ‘mar’, but they also deployed a network logic on where and how they would start and grow such initiatives.

102 Alessandro Coppola, “The Mares de Madrid Project,” UIA, December 2018, https://www.uia-initiative.eu/sites/default/ files/2019-02/Madrid-MARES-Journal%203.pdf, 13.

103 Alessandro Coppola, “The Mares de Madrid Project,” UIA, December 2018, https://www.uia-initiative.eu/sites/default/ files/2019-02/Madrid-MARES-Journal%203.pdf, 15.

104 Alessandro Coppola, “The Mares de Madrid Project,” UIA, December 2018, https://www.uia-initiative.eu/sites/default/ files/2019-02/Madrid-MARES-Journal%203.pdf, 18.

These four exemplars form a set which shares a lot of commonalities despite the varying scale. In the case of La Borda, this infill project had a role in mobilizing decision making protocols that were deposited across other sites. The Lacol Cooperative had a major role in this respect and in engaging the community and dealing with land ownership and land use. Similarly, the community and Assemble Cooperative in the context of Granby Four Streets also had a major in regenerating the area through their spatial strategies. On a wider context, Buiksloterham and Mares used the economic downturn of 2008 to leverage affordable housing models. This coins back to what we discussed in chapter one and the articulation between design and politics as these projects were part of a wider policy approach.

While the spatial moves highlighted in these projects reveal how various elements come together, the question remains: In the context of scale, is it enough for a project to simply incorporate participatory measures, or must we delve deeper into the dynamic interplay between bottom-up initiatives and top-down governance to truly understand the processes that shape effective and sustainable outcomes?

CHAPTER THREE

Role of Architecture in the Reassembley of Economic Processes

Urban regeneration is not neutral and a purely technical practice, it is deeply intertwined with power dynamics, socio-economic inequalities, and ideological battles over the right to the city. Spatial strategies in urban regeneration are not just about revitalizing spaces but also who controls those spaces, who benefits from the changes, and who is excluded.

Scale plays a critical role in these processes influencing both the scope of impact and the distribution of power. Architecture through its spatial strategies and scales, acts as a mediator between the macroeconomic forces of capitalism and the lived experiences of urban communities.

David Harvey through his theory of an uneven development, argues that capitalism produces uneven geographical development, as capital seeks to overcome its spatial barriers and fix its crises through spatial development105

London Docklands is a very classic case in this respect. The architectural transformation of the area into a global financial hub can be seen as a spatial fix designed to resolve the crisis of capital in post industrial Britain. The construction of skyscrapers, luxury residences, etc. were not only spatial interventions, but a process to attract global investment. As Harvey would argue, this process produced uneven development benefiting investors and displacing locals.

However more critically one can say that despite the innovative approach of the four cases presented in chapter 2, (La Borda, Granby Four Streets, Buiksloterham, Mares Madrid) they still reveal a persistent tension between creating equitable urban spaces and the structural forces of capitalism, where the locals are still treated as the consumers in the society and are being told to live in certain ways.

105 Neil Smith, “Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space ,” JSTOR, 1990, https://www.jstor.org/ stable/j.ctt46nmvk, 25.

The scale of architectural interventions, whether at the level of buildings, blocks, neighborhoods or cities, significantly influence how these spaces are integrated into the wider economic system. Architecture through its spatial strategies can either perpetuate existing economic inequalities or contribute to more equitable and sustainable forms of economic organization.

The project of La Borda for example is a micro-scale intervention that seeks to reassemble economic processes by challenging the conventional market housing dynamics. The cooperative employed not just an architectural housing solution, but an economic strategy alternative to speculative development. Through its architectural design, which focuses on capitalizing the social inclusivity through the creation of common spaces, it supports an economic model that emphasizes use value over exchange value. The project’s scale allowed for direct participation and control by the residents, fostering a sense of ownership.

This raises an important question: can these models be effectively scaled up without losing their participatory nature and social inclusivity?

Henri Lefebvre in ‘The Production of Space’ argues that the production of space is purely political, and this affects everyday life in urban environment. It is usually shaped by the conflict between the abstract space (which focuses on exchange value) and social space (which focuses on use value)106. In his theory, abstract space creates violence, however I would argue that the interaction of this social and abstract space also might create violence.

Granby Four Streets makes an interesting case study on how technocratic policies (the abstract) when contested by activism (the social) created more democratic housing governance. However, one might also see that its results were double sided, and created violence.

With the success of Granby CLT – the first community-led housing project – and their design studio Assemble – the first architectural design studio – to be awarded or even shortlisted for a national art award, a lot of unforeseen public attention came in the wake of their Turner Prize win in 2016107. Assemble and CLT activists converted a significant part of this publicity to launch a new social enterprise, Granby Workshop, that aims to build on the social-centered design culture created within the CLT, creating economic activity in the area (they estimate that 90 per cent of profits will be reinvested in environment-building work in the neighborhood). This can be seen as an optimistic new path out of the situation. However, what the existence of the Granby Workshop demonstrates is the extent to which all these social spaces depend on global market dynamics. Assemble capitalized on their Turner Prize recognition to sell their products around the world. The neighborhood has potentially become the object of a repackaging that fed into gentrifier fantasies (as we have seen in the neighbouring areas), providing an opportunity

107 The Turner Prize, instituted in 1984 by the Tate gallery, is an annual award given to a British artist or one working primarily in Britain whose contemporary visual art is judged to be the most innovative of the year. The Prize, named after the painter J M W Turner, is an enduringly controversial award, associated with outrage. It favours work which is often challenging and transgressive in its use of media (painting, sculpture, installation, video). Associated with controversy, it features four artists selected for shortlisting each year. The shortlist attends an exhibition, and one artist gets a cash prize.

for middle-class tourists and researchers to have a self-congratulatory experience of ‘authenticity’ they believe sits past and beyond the immediate context of their own cities, where even residents have complained about ‘researcher fatigue’108. The neighborhood has become a finalist in 2016 for the UN-BSHF World Habitat Awards. The Turner Prize win has consolidated its entry into global circuits of (cultural) capital. Does this victory feel like something to be shared by all residents, and indeed by all those residents who were not part of Assemble’s publicity machinery? Just a few years ago, residents could not think of gentrification as something that could happen in their area. Now, the possibility of design professionals taking over outer spaces in the name of creating an ‘authentically reclaimed young urban scene’ in the neighborhood has become a real one109.

The social space produced by the Granby CLT project – despite its refusal to the technocratic and market-driven approach of comprehensive redevelopment, and its adoption instead of a more experimental, democratic, holistic and socially attuned approach – remains, however, intertwined in the production of abstract space as the Housing Market Renewal (HMR110) ever was. What was

108 Matthew Thompson, Henri Lefebvre and the (social) production of (abstract) space in Liverpool, September 2017, https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/319205292_LIFE_in_a_ZOO_ Henri_Lefebvre_and_the_social_production_of_abstract_space_in_ Liverpool, 15.

109 Matthew Thompson, Henri Lefebvre and the (social) production of (abstract) space in Liverpool, September 2017, https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/319205292_LIFE_in_a_ZOO_ Henri_Lefebvre_and_the_social_production_of_abstract_space_in_ Liverpool, 23.

110 The Housing Market Renewal (HMR) program, , was a government-led intervention in England that began in 2002 to

formerly the zoo of HMR is now replaced by a new zoo – of media-friendly, arts-led regeneration, where Granby is integrated temporarily into global circuits of cultural consumption. Granby’s counterpart, Homebaked in Anfield in Liverpool, the other successful CLT application to date in the city, reflects similar concepts. Established by artists and funded by the Liverpool Biennial arts festival, it raises complicated issues on the role of art and cultural capital, relative to class, in the practice of regeneration.

By presenting these projects as unique, exceptional artistic endeavors, we risk isolating them in a bubble, depoliticizing their potential to challenge abstract space by rendering them as harmless spectacles. Labeling these initiatives as “art” complicates their identification as progressive social spaces—leaving us to ask: progressive for whom?

‘renew’ areas with a depressed housing market, largely in the North and the Midlands. In the program, large-scale demolitions, refurbishments and new housing programs were initiated to raise the value of housing stock, address so-called ‘problem’ neighborhoods with low and declining housing demand and high vacancy rates gained notoriety as neighborhood-uprooting and community-fragmenting programs. Despite its promise of regenerating economically depressed neighborhoods, the HMR program faced much criticism. It was scrapped in 2011 after a nine-year run, but largely failed to fulfil its goals by that time and was associated with some deeply troubling social and economic effects. Matthew Thompson, Henri Lefebvre and the (social) production of (abstract) space in Liverpool, September 2017, https://www. researchgate.net/publication/319205292_LIFE_in_a_ZOO_Henri_Lefebvre_and_the_social_production_of_abstract_space_in_Liverpool, 21.

3.2

The Role of the State and Wider Policy Frameworks

Amsterdam’s approach, in the midst of an economic crisis, differs from that of the United Kingdom in the early 1980s. During that time, as the economy went into recession, the UK government retreated from direct involvement in housing and urban developments. Its strategy was to attract private and international investors to premises in Docklands, with the hope of prompting private development and marketled, demand-driven regeneration111. In contrast, Amsterdam was developing an innovative policy designed to maximize the resilience of the city in an economic crisis. Privately driven developments in Buiksloterham actually emerged from this type of planning, designed to create a strong and resilient neighborhood. In the same time frame, the market-driven development of private housing estates such as those at Docklands has created hyper-exclusive, unaffordable residential areas112 .

In this context, one can say that the project of Buiksloterham was successful in all means, however, how does it sound like for the residents who live there?

“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it and you will even come to believe it yourself.” This infamous saying is sooo applicable here. I live in Amsterdam in the “circular Buiksloterham” district where hundreds of new housing are currently being built. If you want to see thousands of cubic meters of concrete being poured, it is the place to be. The urban plan underpinning its development breaks every rule in the book concerning urban heat sink prevention, inclusivity, future resilience, bio-diversity stimulation, and a healthy living environment (green, clean air, etc). So much so that the Dutch themselves are leaving the city (net outflow) as they have better options leaving the city to those who don’t113 .

Housing policies remain key to the socioeconomic outcomes of urban regeneration. The partial privatization of public sector housing in the UK and the Netherlands, accelerated after the 1990s, contributed to the emergence of exclusive residential areas within redeveloped districts. The convergence of housing policies, market forces and physical interventions determines who wins and who loses in the reinvention of our existing urban fabric.

Mares Madrid’s success was due to its policy framework, which privileged community participation in decision-making. It was inherently less top-down than ventures in sectors such as the London Docklands. In fact, the state gave precedence to co-creation and collaborative governance. The state’s role was to facilitate the ability of local actors to influence the nature of their city rather than impose built development conditions on communities from the outside in.

111 Smith, Adrian. “Political Transformation, Urban Policy and the State in London’s Docklands.” GeoJournal, Old Trends and New Impulses in Europe’s Urban Affairs, 24, no. 3 (July 1991): 46.

112 “Circular Buiksloterham - Transitioning Amsterdam Tot a Circular City,” Issuu, October 4, 2016, https://issuu.com/delvalandscape/docs/circularbuiksloterham_eng_full_repo, 86.

In 2023, Gerard Lindner expressed his disappointment of living in ‘Circular Buiksloterham’, and explained its outcome as creating the opposite of inclusivity and resilience. He criticized the development for failing to incorporate sufficient green spaces, where the focus is more on the aesthetics of green development rather than on achieving substantive environmental benefits. His experience reflects a concern that the district (and urban interventions on this scale) rather than fostering a diverse and resilient community, is becoming increasingly exclusive and inaccessible. This links back to what we discussed before on how spatial spaces created by social space makers, can still be violent, and the difference between what is promised and what actually happens.

113 Gerald Lindner, ““if You Repeat a Lie Often Enough, People Will Believe It and You Will Even Come to Believe It...,” Medium, January 23, 2023, https://medium.com/@gl-10190/ifyou-repeat-a-lie-often-enough-people-will-believe-it-and-you-willeven-come-to-believe-it-483c6475d2e1.

Take Buiksloterham, where the advent of self-build homes in part reflected a struggle with market-led development, but ultimately allowed residents to shape their own living environments. Yet housing prices have also climbed in line with market-led development, reducing the likelihood of keeping lower-income residents in the area. The duality of market solutions illustrates the tensions between state-led resilience initiatives and market dynamics that ultimately threaten those efforts.

In another context, the Mares Madrid project provides an example of the facilitative role of the state in bottom-up initiatives in urban regeneration. In partnership with local communities, NGOs and other stakeholders, the city government of Madrid repurposed derelict spaces across the city for social and economic purposes. This was done in order to create resilient urban ecologies that are able to weather economic shocks in an inclusive and sustainable way.

But Mares Madrid’s reliance on the state also demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining viable forms of participatory regulation in the long run.

As Mares Madrid grew in scale, the interplay of conflicting stakeholder interests and the true practice of community engagement became increasingly difficult to balance. The role of the state in this dynamic, however necessary, was often contentious and, in the context of regeneration, had to balance the need to progress with the aim of more even benefits from the renewal.

What I want to highlight instead is the dialectical, dual relationship between these two aspects in Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space: ‘Abstract space contains within itself the seeds of a new kind of space,’ but at the same time, ‘if social space is not handled with care, it will bear the seeds of abstraction.’

Interplay in the Reassembley of Economic Processes

Henri Lefebvre’s conceptualization of the (social/ lived) and abstract (market-driven/rate of exchange) is essential here; in the analyses that follow, the presence or absence of social space –the dimensionality of lived experience or use-value – serves as a key diagnostic. In every example, the divide between the social and abstract manifests itself as a fundamental tension. The dynamic between the two informs whether a given regeneration project will succeed or fail.

In the British case, the original emphasis of the project in Granby Four Streets on creating social space has been tested by the rise of abstract space pushed towards it by global cultural capital, and in the Dutch case, the emphasis on circularity and the environment which characterizes Buiksloterham’s district development could soon become overpowered by market developments designed more for curatorial showiness than genuine environmental or social beneficial effects.

(Neo)-Liberal culture projects, especially those with a focus on urban regeneration, might benefit from cultural capital, particularly in terms of a civic engagement and social inclusion agenda. Exporting this success index to other neighborhoods, however, could well trigger the commoditization of cultural capital and, hence, gentrification of regenerated urban areas such as London Docklands.

As the acclaim heaped on Assemble’s Granby Workshop goes to show, when cultural capital is converted into economic activity, it can power community development. Yet the narratives of seeds of commodification, as gentrification is mobilized as a force for change. As aspirant socio-municipal actors move in with resources and networks, gentrification creates a vortex, dramatically altering the demographic landscape. This process has proceeded for years in workingclass quarters of London, especially those in close proximity to the developing regeneration centers

positioned south of the Olympic Park114. The effect is not so much victimization by displacement as it is the relocation of original populations and environments to the outer reaches of the city.

In this way, urban regeneration projects are shaped by both local and global forces, namely the relative influence of private developers over local economic development agencies, together with the interplay between these forces and other actors in the regeneration process. In many cases, locally proclaimed agendas such as social inclusion and sustainability are frustrated by global market pressures, and examples of global cultural capital being imposed on regenerated areas can fairly be seen in analysis to conflict with explicitly local place-based agendas.

114 Smith, Adrian. “Political Transformation, Urban Policy and the State in London’s Docklands.” GeoJournal, Old Trends and New Impulses in Europe’s Urban Affairs, 24, no. 3 (July 1991): 46.

It is not that, for Granby Four Streets, international cultural circuits bring nothing but good, or that, for Buiksloterham, international circuits of capital are only detrimental. On the one hand, the Turner Prize win, and the accompanying attention, helped spread the message of the reborn neighborhood and bring new investment to the estate, while a bold policy of making Buiksloterham largely independent of exterior energy supplies – the key test for circularity – has raised the bar for similarly ambitious schemes elsewhere.

It is abundantly clear that architecture has made, and continues to make, places that further the logic of the capitalist city – the logic of commodification and exclusion, profit extraction, and privatized spaces (think of the volumes of development that now takes place on speculation, in the private rented sector, and with a focus on luxury as they sell to the super-rich). So, while the experiments of La Borda and similar archives of difference present models for spaces that reorder the logic of the economic, and draw on the power of memory, their proponents could inevitably only ever have limited impact on the much larger forces that shape the development of the urban.

Harvey’s theory of uneven development and Lefebvre’s account of the production of space under capitalism underscore how capital stabilizes accumulation through large-scale, highly structured top-down interventions into the built environment, with correspondingly adverse repercussions in the realm of the lived.

This reassembly can offer architecture a major role in the politics of resilience: the role of living with destruction. To rediscover such a function for architecture, it will need to be embedded in a wider political strategy that addresses the structural processes generating urban space. This requires a broader array of competencies than those that purely inform a project’s technical or aesthetic execution, and has implications for both architecture, and for economic process, that must be critically engaged with as they play out elsewhere.

CONCLUSION

Adaptive reuse has emerged as a prominent strategy for urban regeneration because it offers a roadmap to sustainability by repurposing existing structures rather than resorting to new construction. It preserves the embodied energy of buildings, and avoids the substantial energy cost of new materials. Furthermore, it can be more cost-effective than new construction, generating economic activity and jobs for local businesses115 . It can preserve cultural heritage, and encourage the creation of community-based public spaces. However, the benefits of adaptive reuse are tempered by significant challenges, especially in terms of the social impacts of displacement and gentrification.

One of the key arguments presented in this thesis is that while adaptive reuse does embody the potential to influence and lead a positive urban transformation, on the other hand, it equally carries a threat of displacing an actual community. The question of displacement is highly dependent on how a project scores on its spatial, social, economic, and environmental dimensions. The way architecture engages with these parameters can help make a project an agent of inclusive revitalization or cause it to leave gentrification in its wake.

115 Peter A. Bullen, “Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability of Commercial Buildings,” emerald , February 6, 2007, https://www. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.11 08/02632770710716911/ full/html, 6.

These case studies – La Borda, Granby Four Streets, Buiksloterham, and Mares Madrid –demonstrate the varying results of adaptive reuse. From the spatial strategies employed by La Borda and Granby Four Streets, we can see how redevelopment, by building on a tradition of strong community engagement and socially inclusive practices, not only helps existing populations to remain in place, but also reinforces the very social networks that link residents to their home place. In these cases, adaptive reuse was not just about upcycling buildings but also about empowering residents, fostering community cohesion, and ensuring that the benefits of regeneration were shared equitably.

The success of projects like La Borda and Granby Four Streets is that their spatial strategies prioritized community needs over the market imperatives116. By adopting a cooperative housing model based on the principle of shared use, La Borda introduced a new model of housing provision that focused on use value instead of exchange value. This model allows residents to maintain control and ownership over their living environment, mitigating the risk of displacement

Likewise, the community land trust model adopted by Granby Four Streets used community refurbishment to repurpose vacant and derelict homes in the area. By involving local residents in the design phases and redevelopment itself, the project effectively revitalized the area’s built heritage, while simultaneously fostering ownership within the grassroots community and deterring the pressures of gentrification117.

These projects, among others, demonstrate that daptive reuse when guided by socially conscious spatial strategies, can become a tool for keeping locals in place rather than displacing them. However, this requires a balance between architectural innovation and community engagement, as well as the recognition of the broader socio-economic and political practices at play.

governance included a facilitative role of the state that supported mobilization and selforganization of local actors in regenerating their neighborhoods118.

Conversely, the market-driven redevelopment of London Docklands under the Thatcher government highlights the risk of a speculative, tabula rasa approach. The focus on attracting private investors led to the displacement of the local working-class communities and the creation of exclusive, highend residential units119

116 Andreas Luco, “La Borda / Lacol,” ArchDaily, August 5, 2019, https://www.archdaily.com/922184/la-borda-lacol

State and wider policy frameworks (national and/or local) are key in shaping the nature and consequences of project outcomes. Policy can either encourage or hinder the development of more inclusive and socially just urban spaces.

In Mares Madrid, the collaborative model of

117 Matthew Thompson, Between Boundaries: From commoning and guerrilla gardening to Community Land Trust Development in Liverpool, May 2015, https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/27594746 1_Between_Boundaries_From_Commoning_and_Gu errilla_Gardening_to_Community_Land_Trust_Devel opment_in_Liverpool.

Amsterdam’s Buiksloterham project provides a better balanced approach, where the state promoted circular economy principles and encourages self-build initiatives, in order to create a more resilient neighborhood. As we have noted, though, it is not without its problems, especially in terms of inflated property prices and the risk of pricing out marginalized groups120.

118 Alessandro Coppola, “The Mares de Madrid Project,” UIA, December 2018, https://www.uiainitiative.eu/sites/default/ files/2019-02/MadridMARES-Journal%203.pdf, 3.

119 Smith, Adrian. “Political Transformation, Urban Policy and the State in London’s Docklands.” GeoJournal, Old Trends and New Impulses in Europe’s Urban Affairs, 24, no. 3 (July 1991): 46.

120 Gerald Lindner, ““if You Repeat a Lie Often Enough, People Will Believe It and You Will Even Come to Believe It...,”

Adaptive reuse is an ongoing process that adapts to changing economic conditions, political priorities and social lives over time. The enduring legacy of adaptive reuse will be determined as much by its ability to respond to the challenges that are yet to unfold as those that first encouraged its potential.

Local initiatives encouraging social inclusion and sustainability can be undermined at the scale of the global city by market forces, while at the same time forces at a more global scale – mainly involving cultural capital – can redefine the identity of the regenerated area in ways that may clash profoundly with the local agenda, rebalancing urban social relations and leading to social segregation.

While the experience of Granby Four Streets shows how initial success in creating social space can prove more tenuous against external pressures that may accompany global cultural capital (such as those generated by Assemble’s Turner Prize win), it also demonstrates how ongoing community involvement and vigilance is still required to ensure that gains made through adaptive reuse are not eroded over time.

Indeed, the case of Granby Four Streets shows that even such international renown and flows of capital can lead to the greatest benefits and the greatest tensions within struggles for self-directed and community-led regeneration: the publicity of the Turner Prize win brought along with it new resources and attention to the are, as well as concerns of gentrification and threats of displacement.

However, as Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey‘s theories suggest, architecture is never neutral –it can either perpetuate existing inequalities and violence or contribute to more equitable forms of living.

Therefore, a multi-scalar approach is required to maximize the benefits of adaptive reuse in today’s cities – one that combines generous and innovative spatial strategies, ongoing community engagement, supportive policy environments, and constant vigilance and adjustment to ensure that the benefits of regeneration are shared by as many people as possible.

Similarly, Buiksloterham emphasis on circularity and sustainability faces ongoing challenges from the market-driven dynamics that could undermine its original goal. As mentioned before, the project’s success will depend on its ability to balance social, environmental and economic priorities over the long-term.

The question is whether these commitments can survive the realities of global financial flows, and cope with the demands of high-end urban housing markets. In this context, Buiksloterham retains its commitment to sustainability and inclusivity, but it will become increasingly difficult as the district feels the effects of global real estate pressures.

Finally, can those sustainability, inclusivity and community empowerment commitments hold out under the competitive pressures of a global financial markets, and against the demand for high-end urban development in a metropolis that cannot absorb all its aspirations of hypermodernity? Or will they instead be overcome by a wave of displacement and gentrification that they found so offensive in the first place?

Medium, January 23, 2023, https://medium.com/@gl-10190/if-yourepeat-a-lieoften-enough-people-will-believe-it-and-you-willevencome-to-believe-it-483c6475d2e1.

In urban regeneration, architecture acts as a mediator between the scale of capitalist economies and the lived experiences of urban communities.

Figure 1: The Evolution of London Docklands. https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/9fdmbz/how_londons_docklands_has_ changed_1986_2018/

Figure 2: Protest Posters from 1980s London Docklands

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/ london-docklands-before-canary-wharf-isle-ofdogs-mike-seaborne-a3966831.html

Figure 3: Resource Scarcity

https://www.eudfoundation.info/post/resource-scarcity-how-capitalism-has-depleted-earth-s-riches

Figure 4: Carcassone before and after Viollet le Duc’s Restoration

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carcassonne_avant_viollet_le_duc_par_panouill%C3%A9.jpg

Figure 5: Plan Voisin by Le Corbusier

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Voisin

Figure 6: Superlofts, Buiksloterham.

https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects/5aca7770f197cc849800009d-superlofts-marc-koehler-architects-photo?next_project=no

Figure 7: Granby Workshop

https://granbyworkshop.co.uk/project/the-rulesof-production/

Figure 8: Haussman’s Transformation of Paris

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/ mar/31/story-cities-12-paris-baron-haussmann-france-urban-planner-napoleon

Figure 9: Paris before and after the Transformation

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/medieval-paris-before-baron-haussmanns-transformation.1044081/page-27

Figure 10: Communal Areas in La Borda

https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/reviews/la-borda-cooperative-housing

Figure 11: Protests in Barcelona because of Housing Crisis

https://www.arise.tv/barcelona-to-ban-tourist-apartment-rentals-by-2028-to-combat-housing-crisis/

Figure 12: La Borda Project Context

https://jgonzalezfarias.medium.com/la-borda-barcelonas-social-housing-utopia-3883c7157bde

Figure 13: La Borda Courtyard

https://www.archdaily.com/922184/la-borda-lacol/5d420f12284dd1d5f5000664-la-borda-lacol-photo?next_project=no

Figure 14: La Borda Floor Plan

https://www.archdaily.com/922184/la-borda-lacol/5d420f12284dd1d5f5000664-la-borda-lacol-photo?next_project=no

Figure 15: La Borda Cooperative

https://world-habitat.org/world-habitat-awards/winners-and-finalists/la-borda/

Figure 16: Sustainability Strategies

https://urbannext.net/la-borda-housing-cooperative/

Figure 17: CLT use in La Borda

https://www.archdaily.com/922184/la-borda-lacol/5d420f12284dd1d5f5000664-la-borda-lacol-photo?next_project=no

Figure 18: Granby Four Streets Plan

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-fourstreets-2

Figure 19: 10 Houses Project in Liverpool Street – Assemble

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/10-houses

Figure 20: 10 Houses Project in Liverpool Street – Assemble

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/10-houses

Figure 21: Granby Workshop

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/the-rules-ofproduction

Figure 22: Granby Workshop

https://www.archdaily.com/776243/granby-workshop-assemble-launch-eclectic-range-of-socially-conscious-homewares/5636da45e58ecea1e2000160-granby-workshop-assemble-launch-eclectic-range-of-socially-conscious-homewares-image?next_project=no

Figure 23: Granby Workshop

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/the-rules-ofproduction

Figure 24: Granby Winter Garden

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-winter-gardens

Figure 25: Granby Winter Garden

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-winter-gardens

Figure 26: Granby Winter Garden

https://assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/granby-winter-gardens

Figure 27: Buiksloterham Industrial Heritage

https://www.workshop.archi/buiksloterham/

Figure 28: Buiksloterham Location

https://zondagcs.nl/projects/buiksloterham/

Figure 29: Buiksloterham Location

https://zondagcs.nl/projects/buiksloterham/

Figure 30: City Plot

https://studioninedots.nl/project/cityplot-buiksloterham/

Figure 31: Superlofts

https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects

Figure 32: Superlofts

https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects

Figure 33: Mares Madrid

https://vicvivero.net/Mares-Madrid-resilencia-y-autoempleo

Figure 34: Superlofts

https://www.archdaily.com/892160/superlofts-marc-koehler-architects

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URBAN ALCHEMY

Transforming Spaces, Empowering Communities

Architectural Association School of Architecture

MArch Housing & Urbanism 2023 2024 Graduate School Programme

Elena Pascolo l Jorge Fiori l Stephen Sinclair