Achieving inclusion through renovation: learning from the afterlife of social housing transformation in the post-war estates of Flanders and Brussels

Often built as innovative models, post-war social housing estates increasingly require renovation. Although the latter has been recently earmarked as a “high social impact” investment, it remains a complex process. One of its challenges is the sectorial treatment of social and spatial issues, even in the case of complex urban regeneration schemes. Participation, going from mere consultation to sophisticated co-creation, has become more common in public investment projects, but is not per se a guarantee of inclusion. This project targets inclusive renovation first-hand by focusing on renovation’s afterlife. Collecting insights from recent renovations in Flanders and Brussels, it will evaluate their impact from a situated, multi-stakeholder perspective, highlighting discrepancies between renovation and its afterlife. It will formulate inclusion-driven scenarios for future social housing renovation (mid-term) and for the 2030-50 horizon, when large renovations are expected (long-term).

Keywords:inclusion, social housing renovation, multi-stakeholder analysis, urban regeneration, trans-disciplinary co-production

Disciplines:Urban and regional design, Housing markets, development, management, Voluntary associations, participation and civil society, Urban and housing policy, Urban anthropology