Every minute, a building in Europe is destroyed – not by natural disaster, but by human hands. While they profit, you pay the price : with rising rents and rising temperatures. We want to stop this destruction and make renovation the new norm — because demolishing existing buildings is as outdated as food waste, animal testing, fast fashion, and single-use plastics.

• Social Issue = Home Loss
  ↘︎ Demolition destroys homes and displaces communities.
  ↗︎ Renovation saves homes by keeping prices stable.
• Ecological Issue = Energy Loss
  ↘︎ Demolition destroys materials and wastes energy.
  ↗︎ Renovation saves energy by preserving what is there.
• Economic Issue = Job Loss
  ↘︎ Demolition destroys jobs and prioritizes profit over people.
  ↗︎ Renovation saves jobs by boosting local markets.
• Cultural Issue = Memory Loss
  ↘︎ Demolition destroys memories and harms neighborhoods.
  ↗︎ Renovation saves history by valuing the existing.

How to fix it? We demand new EU laws to protect affordable housing and the climate !

The buildings sector currently operates in a system that trains us to see risk instead of potential, and to assume that new is always better than old. It promotes new construction, making it not only less profitable but more difficult to renovate and transform. You can fix it ! This is why HouseEurope ! demands a Right to Reuse, based on four key pillars :

• (I) Tax Reduction
  We demand VAT exemptions for building renovations and reused materials to stimulate the renovation market and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the construction sector.
• (II) Fair Evaluation Criteria
  We demand mandatory EU-wide standards for assessing not only the risks but also the potential of existing buildings, as these are essential to unlock their value, and drive investment in renovation.
• (III) Holistic Approach
  We demand the introduction of intertemporal life cycle assessments to reveal the full CO₂ impact of buildings—from past emissions to those in the present and future—and give them a value.
• (IV) Renovation Subsidies
  We demand appropriate financial resources to support renovation projects across Europe and to create fair market conditions for both old and new buildings.

You can fix it ! It takes 30 seconds and costs you nothing !

National Organising Members

• LUCA – Luxembourg Center for Architecture, Luxembourg-City
• Florian Hertweck, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette

Luxembourg Partners

• Citizens for Ecological Learning and Living a.s.b.l., Luxembourg-City
• Cultures of Assembly (COA), Esch-sur-Alzette
• National Centre for Industrial Culture (CNCI), Esch-sur-Alzette
• Institut national pour le patrimoine architectural (INPA), Luxembourg-City
• Lëtzebuerger Denkmalschutz Federatioun (LDF), Luxembourg-City
• Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH), Esch-sur-Alzette
• Mouvement écologique, Luxembourg-City
• Oekozenter Pafendall, Luxembourg-City
• Ordre des Architectes et Ingénieurs-Conseil (OAI), Luxembourg-City
• University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette
• Young Architects Association asbl.(YAA), Luxembourg-City