Research New Light on Vacancy

Jeanne Dekkers Architectuur started a research project ‘ New Light on Vacancy’, together with the Belgian architecture office Re-GEN. This study is made possible by the Netherlands Architecture Fund. The research focuses on the structural vacancy of offices in the Netherlands and Belgium and deals with the less attractive ‘grey’ office buildings.
In total 40 office buildings and areas in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Antwerp and Brussels which are structurally empty, will be investigated. The goal is to achieve a future image of the possibilities and impossibilities of the site and the building, so a new reality is created right through the existing reality.
By designing various concept models for each office – looking at the urban causes, various (utopian) programs and trends – solutions will be put forward that go beyond the standard. The models are not constrained by barriers at a financial, legal and technical level.
Interviews with various participants in the debate on vacancy - such as policy makers, owners, users and designers – serve as an initial inventory of the current practice. In this way barriers and pitfalls of vacancy - but also the qualities, needs and possibilities - are mapped.
The final result of the research is a handbook, which is linked to several mindsets and can be used as a tool for the transformation of vacant offices.