Circulaire reconversiestrategieën voor het naoorlogse universiteitspatrimonium: de 'Experimenteerschool' als casus

Abstract

Like many other countries in Western society, Belgium experienced a building boom during the 1960s and 70s thanks to the post-war reconstruction. As a result of the democratization of higher education, the number of students increased exponentially, which has forced the infrastructure to expand. The outskirts of Ghent changed considerably, and campuses arose like mushrooms. The majority of these generic post-war buildings are today confronted with uncertainties regarding their future developments. Due to the rapidly changing programmatic needs of the university and the rising energy costs, this raises questions on their redevelopment. The post-war construction logic did not take the scenario into account in which energy is a finite raw material. The university was therefore faced with an impossible choice: looking at the scanty budget going out year after year to maintain the current building park or invest in energy savings by donating part of the assets.

Current policy at the university prefers to renovate ‘energetically ad hoc’ in addition to giving up its assets. Buildings are systematically transformed into BEN buildings with a monovalent program that, after ten years, no longer measures up to the constantly changing programmatic requirements of the university. Spatial shifts (ad hoc) are a consequence of this approach whereby the “right” space is disconnected from its “right” program. In other words, space abuse is encouraged. Today, energy standards have overshadowed the demand for existing heritage and their energy value, symbolically, historically and socially, without taking energy costs into account for demolition and construction. This thesis investigates whether the ‘energetic ad hoc renovation’ strategy is possible in an alternative way, by invoking the principles of circular building. If we look at the current Belgian context, we notice that in many competitions, project descriptions ... the application of circular principles is asked. For new projects, Ghent University barely asks for strategies to encourage the closure of material cycles. Moreover, no circular leverage actions are included in the university Energy Beleidsplan 2020 - 2030. There is no more time to lose for the university that has to maintain a large building park as an institutional client.

— Abstract, taken from the master thesis.