How not to demolish a building

Many architects and engineers today believe that the most sustainable building is one that is never demolished. The third edition of the Chapters series developed by the Belgian architecture firm 51N4E addresses the transformation of two office towers according to the principles of reduce-reuse-recycle. Against all odds, the former World Trade Center in Brussels is being repurposed in an unimaginable way. After years of vacancy and stagnation, the building now represents a new approach to urban development and becomes a showcase project for sustainable management of building materials from the 1970s that are at risk of demolition: 65% of the existing towers will be preserved, 1,000 tons of construction materials will be reused, and over 85% of waste will be recycled. Furthermore, the entire structure, except for the concrete framework, is designed for disassembly, allowing the spaces and the building to be easily adapted to new functions in the future. Thus, two monofunctional, hermetic office buildings are transformed into a multifunctional center for the neighborhood. The publication tells the story of this unlikely journey that led to the ambitious redesign. Starting from the initial ideas that drove the WTC project, as well as the interim use that initiated a new dynamic, it describes the complex and sometimes contentious processes that have shaped the innovative reuse project called ZIN. While the adaptive reuse of the building materials is unique, the underlying concepts and processes are not. Therefore, the book not only documents the repurposing of the WTC in Brussels, but it also serves as a lesson on how to avoid demolishing a building.