The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Open and Transformable Building related to its financial feasibility

With the current focus of construction and design on sustainability, Open Building is challenged to reinforce its sustainable character. In this light, Transformable Building is an interesting focus. As it adopts from Open Building its adaptability, it enables the reuse of building components and their resource efficient management.

In search for a wider implementation of Transformable Building in practice, its financial feasibility is frequently questioned: designers and contractors fear a higher investment cost to enable disassembly and reuse. However, together with the ecological savings also savings in the life cycle cost of transformable buildings are expected. Unfortunately, insight in those financial effects is limited today.

As a first step towards understanding Transformability’s costs and savings, a specific literature study has been conducted. By reviewing six publications closely related to Open and Transformable Building over 200 relevant arguments have been collected and organised in a SWOT matrix.

In the presented paper, the collected arguments are summarised in 14 hypotheses, each stating a strength, weakness, opportunity or threat of Transformable Building related to its financial feasibility. Those statements are discussed one by one and completed with observations of emerging theories, insights or recent cases in Belgian practice, policy or research.

In conclusion, these hypotheses bring designers and investors a preliminary overview of the financial potential of Transformable Building, they can guide researchers and advisors towards focused assessments and they offer a new perspective on Open Building now it is challenged for its share in sustainable building.