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How can Europe make better use of existing buildings to address the housing crisis?
This is the question at the heart of LIFE RE-HOME (Reuse and Enable Housing Opportunities through Municipal Experimentation). Europe faces a housing paradox: while millions of dwellings remain vacant or underused, municipalities face rising housing needs, affordability crises and increasing pressure on land.
RE-HOME explores how making better use of existing buildings can create affordable, sustainable and inclusive housing while reducing the need for new development and lowering the environmental impact of the built environment.
At the heart of the project are two ideas: sufficiency, which means making better use of the buildings and spaces we already have instead of defaulting to new construction, and adaptability, which means adjusting homes to residents’ changing needs, for example through shared housing, modular units or intergenerational co-housing.
Working across four pilot municipalities—Chalandri (Greece), Mechelen (Belgium), La Rochelle (France) and Hrastnik (Slovenia)—the project explores different pathways towards affordable housing through the reuse and adaptation of existing buildings.
RE-HOME is funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.
Although unused buildings could help address local housing needs, bringing them back into use is often complex. Local authorities face legal, regulatory and governance barriers, while a lack of shared definitions, reliable data on vacancy and underuse, and integrated approaches makes it difficult to identify opportunities and develop effective housing strategies. Housing, planning, climate and social policies are often addressed separately, limiting municipalities’ ability to make better use of the existing building stock.
Addressing these challenges requires more than individual building projects. It calls for better evidence, collaboration across municipal departments, participation of local communities, practical methods that can be adapted to different contexts, and policy frameworks that enable the wider adoption of sufficiency and adaptability in housing.
Gentle urban densification and biodiversity-friendly gardens
La Rochelle demonstrates how gentle urban densification can increase housing supply without urban sprawl. By combining plot subdivision with biodiversity-friendly gardens, the pilot creates new housing opportunities while improving climate resilience and urban biodiversity.
Home-sharing and co-living in oversized family homes
Many homes in Mechelen were built for larger families and are now underused. The pilot explores home-sharing and co-living solutions that make better use of existing housing while creating affordable homes and supporting intergenerational living.
Adaptive reuse of refugee heritage housing
The Chalandri pilot focuses on the adaptive reuse of Asia Minor refugee heritage housing. By transforming historic refugee homes into affordable housing, the pilot demonstrates how cultural heritage can become part of the solution to today’s housing challenges while strengthening community identity and preserving local history.
Reactivating vacant municipal housing for vulnerable groups
Hrastnik reactivates vacant municipal housing to provide affordable homes for vulnerable groups in a former industrial region. The pilot combines housing transformation with neighbourhood regeneration, public space improvements and stronger community facilities.
Beyond the four pilot cities, RE-HOME will support municipalities across Europe by developing place-based transformation strategies, testing its methodology through ten additional housing micro-experiments, strengthening local capacities through training, mentoring, peer learning, e-learning and a Summer School, and producing a transferable toolkit and policy recommendations that help municipalities integrate sufficiency and adaptability into housing policies and practices.
The project aims to:
Mapping and diagnostics
Identifying vacant and underused buildings through spatial mapping, community diagnostics and creative documentation.
Place-based transformation strategies
Co-designing long-term housing strategies with municipalities and local stakeholders.
Pilot demonstrations
Testing adaptive reuse, home-sharing, gentle urban densification and the reactivation of municipal housing in four different local contexts.
Learning and replication
Supporting municipalities through workshops, study visits, peer learning, multilingual e-learning, a Summer School, a transferable toolkit and ten additional housing micro-experiments.
Policy innovation
Developing recommendations that help municipalities overcome legal, financial and governance barriers to the reuse of existing buildings.
Cooperative City leads the co-design of the four place-based transformation strategies, working with municipalities, local stakeholders and communities to develop practical pathways for transforming vacant and underused buildings into affordable housing.
The organisation also leads the project’s communication and dissemination activities, coordinates creative documentation and storytelling through collaborations with local artists and cultural practitioners, and contributes to peer learning, study visits, the Summer School, the transferable toolkit and the online learning programme. By connecting local experiences with European exchange, Cooperative City helps ensure that the knowledge generated through RE-HOME can be transferred to municipalities across Europe.
