The sustainability of office buildings is high on the agenda of the government and the business community. Although the know-how and techniques are available, projects are in many cases slow to get off the ground. Especially in the improvement of existing office buildings, considerable gains can be made. During the symposium ‘Sustainable housing: who’s up to it?’, A number of practical examples were reviewed. The government and market parties were called upon to show more initiative.
The main causes of the structural office vacancy in the Netherlands are aging, poor accessibility and functionality of the buildings and a poor image. It is reasonable to assume that some of those buildings will never find a user again. Nevertheless, there are possibilities to breathe new life into a large number of ‘sleeping’ offices, by means of (sustainable) revitalization. That was the message from René Stevens, general manager of ATELIER V real estate.
ATELIER V real estate is part of a partnership called Revitaal. The other partners in this regard are Ballast Nedam Beheer, Imtech and Troostwijk Real Estate. Re-vitaal aims to “revitalize real estate and have buildings meet the (sustainability) requirements of current or potential tenants or users within the economic preconditions of the owner”.
“A villa in a slum area has less worth than a shack in a villa area.” (René Stevens)
Read more in the Dutch article ‘Duurzaamheid kost geld maar levert meer op’ published in the Facility Management Magazine (FMM). (20110301 Facility Management Magazine).