The office market is shrinking. Brussels already had 1 million square metres of vacant office space before the COVID crisis, and another 500,000 m² of outdated buildings were added in the past year. The European Commission, a good indicator of office use, also wants to dispose of 25 per cent of its buildings and reduce its office space by 200,000 m². At the same time, Brussels is struggling with a severe shortage of affordable housing and public infrastructure such as schools and sports centres, especially in single-function office districts such as the North District or the European Quarter. It therefore seems only logical that outdated office buildings should be repurposed for other programmes.

This ambition is also on the agenda of the Brussels Chief Architect (BMA) and Perspective, the Brussels Region’s planning agency, which this year proposed a plan for a more diverse programme for the European Quarter.