The UpCycling Trust project and the corresponding renovation model demonstrate a highly effective use of financial means. The model focuses on the circular renovation of buildings by linking energy renovation to long-term affordability and common land governance.
This approach minimizes environmental impact by preserving materials, reducing construction waste, and avoiding the development of greenfield sites. At the same time, by integrating renovated homes into Community Land Trusts (CLTs) or Organismes de Foncier Solidaire (OFS), the model unlocks capital for the renovation while ensuring that these dwellings remain affordable for current and future residents.
Read more about the model:
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Here, at designedtochange.be, work-in-progress and intermediary deliverables by VUB Architectural Engineering in the project Upcycling Trust are collected. Don’t hesitate to share your suggestions for improvements to [email protected].
Upcycling Trust is financed by the Interreg North-West Europe programme. ****Coordinators are City of Lille and CLTB, partners are CLT Gent, Cork City Council, Lille Européen Metropolis, LMH, Habiter2030, Self Organised Architecture Research, Rennes Metropolis. The objective of the Upcycling Trust project is to increase the number of forever affordable homes with a minimal environmental impact, starting with 5 pilot projects in Belgium, France and Ireland.
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As a starting point for scaling sustainable, circular renovation within a CLT model, three inspiring case studies have been documented in detail. They demonstrate how a variety of circular strategies, including reuse, recycling, and the adoption of bio-based materials, can be successfully applied in both a small-scale apartment renovation and a 46-unit renovation project.
Explore each project to discover which materials were (re)used, how the teams were structured, and how affordability and sustainability were successfully aligned.
This is the further analysis by Ebert De Rover (VUB) of three out of six cases identified as exemplary by project partners Lucie Cambianica (Habiter2030) and Eoghan Horgan (Cork Community Land Trust). The six cases are made available in this publication:
Although all five pilots use the same UpCycling Trust principles, each addresses a different housing reality: vulnerable homeowners in Brussels, social housing in Ghent, neighbourhood regeneration in Lille, condominiums in Rennes, and vacant buildings in Cork.
Together, they test how circular renovation and permanent affordability can work across very different housing contexts.