| dc.description.abstract | The Netherlands is facing critical social, economic, and environmental challenges in its ongoing urban development. While there is a surplus of vacant office buildings, the social housing supply is deficient, putting low-income groups at increasing risk in safeguarding shelter. Next to acknowledging the pressing real estate market mismatches, the government has also established new guidelines for the environmental sustainability of the entire Dutch building stock. Subsequently, stricter environmental standards are employed for the production of new (social) housing and the upgrading of energy-inefficient buildings. Altogether, the Netherlands is being tested in its ability to make the necessary adjustments in the management and use of urban areas in order to meet its long-term political goals.
This thesis studies the applicability of converting office buildings into social housing as a consolidative and enduring solution for improving the social, economic, and environmental quality of urban areas. Specifically, the aim is to understand the institutional processes that are involved in realizing office conversion and the extent to which the Netherlands’ societal challenges drive this urban development approach. In addition, this thesis attempts to shed light on the social, economic, and environmental effects of this type of building conversion on both new building residents and existing neighborhood residents, which is unprecedented in building conversion literature. This analysis is framed in the context of urban sustainability, which presents intergenerational goals for the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of urban areas.
The results of this research reveal that the practical application of urban sustainability through building conversion shows great potential for consolidating the three presented urban challenges while contributing to the ongoing goals of Dutch urban development. Through interventions like office conversion, urban society reaps the benefits of removing the socioeconomic threats presented by building vacancies, increasing the provision of affordable urban housing, and mitigating environmental stressors, such as urban energy consumption and greenfield construction. Specifically, the new social-renting residents of converted offices express their chief satisfaction towards having safeguarded affordable housing, albeit at the cost of some lesser technical qualities, such as dwelling size and noise insulation. Additionally, these residents benefit from an up-to-date and energy-efficient residence and established facilities and services nearby their buildings. While neighbors of converted buildings experience limited disruption – environmentally, economically, or socially – from office conversion in their daily lives, they appreciate the multi-dimensional benefits for greater society and encourage such consolidative solutions.
However, Dutch institutions struggle to address the environmental, economic, and social demands of cities in a balanced and adequate manner. The overarching political sentiment is still to foster short-term economic and social goals before long-term environmental needs, which can disfavor office conversion in the current real estate market. Nonetheless, investigating building conversion through the lens of urban sustainability shows that such small-scale urban developments have the potential to concomitantly address the environmental, economic, and social needs of all urban society, starting at the community-level. | |
