How Not to Demolish a Building

Published as the third part of the Chapters series developed by the Belgian architects 51N4E, How Not to Demolish a Building tells the story of two office towers from the 1970s that have been transformed according to the principles of reduce/reuse/recycle.

Against all odds, the former World Trade Centre in Brussels is being repurposed in a previously unimaginable way. After many years of vacancy, the building now represents a new approach to urban development and a showcase for dealing in a more sustainable way with older buildings threatened with demolition. And although the adaptive reuse of this building is unique, the underlying concepts and processes are not – a lesson on how not to demolish a building.