D5.1 How to identify buildings for life-cycle extension? Guide for case selection via the mapping of transformable neighbourhoods and buildings

For buildings, transformation implements circular economy on its highest level. Building transformation takes place to a certain extent on a business-as-usual basis. To encourage it further, methods are needed to identify what kind of buildings easily become obsolete, where they are located and what their potential for transformation is. In this report, the CIRCuIT cities share their insights into methods for this kind of analyses. They are divided roughly into two: cruder citylevel methods and more detailed neighbourhood and/or building level methods. Seven distinctive approaches are presented: analyses of building stock patterns, analyses with planning data and/or urban indicators, qualitative analysis based on stakeholder discussions, multi-method approaches, multi-criteria decision-making models, identifying ‘natural’ adaptive reuse potential, and calculating transformation capacity indicator. In addition to the purpose of the investigation, data availability is a major driver for the selection of a method in practice. Once the transformation potential of the existing building stock is understood, it will be possible to take it into consideration in sustainable urban planning, together with other relevant factors.