Ode to Joy explores how to preserve, adapt and transform a building not only in its materiality but also its ownership model and by doing so its accessibility and role for the quarter.

In the summer of 2023, the European Commission announced the biggest single real estate operation in the history of Brussels. After decades of overturning planning regulations aimed at the demolition and re-building of the European Quarter, the European Commission suddenly decided to sell 50% of their buildings. In order to achieve their exemplary goal for climate neutrality by 2030, the European Commission is in fact abandoning their allegedly “underperforming” building stock, bundled in one portfolio of 350.000 m².

As public bodies and private companies race for „climate neutrality,“ often blurring the lines between carbon neutrality and carbon compensation, they fall short of their own goals. This leads to exporting policy while externalising responsibility. With none of the buildings being up for demolition, we have to broaden our understanding of transformation beyond materiality. For decades, governmental bodies have sold off publicly owned building stock for short-term financial advantages. A practice which is driving up the value of the land underneath, submitting entire neighbourhoods to a spiral of speculation and drastically affecting their affordability and accessibility. Repeating the same mistake in the name of sustainability means replacing the speculation of today by the green speculation of tomorrow.

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