RE-HOME

About

Energy Cities staff involved

Thibaut Maraquin

Project Management & Overall Coordination

Béatrice Karas

Information & Communications

Funding program

Life

Duration

2026 - 2028

Coordinators

Energy Cities

Partners

Urban community of La Rochelle, Mechelen city council, Chalandri city county (GR), Hrastnik city council (SI), Cooperative City Nonprofit Ltd, Ubranex Ltd, Vraiment vraiment (vraiment), Fédération Européenne d’Associations Nationales Travaillant avec les Sans-Abri (FEANTSA), Urbana, National Centre for Social Research – EKKE, FLYA SA, Samenhuizen ngo, Labland , La Rochelle city council, Villes vivantes, Regional Development Agency Zasavje, Institue for Innovation and Development of University of Ljubljana

LIFE RE-HOME addresses Europe’s housing paradox: millions of dwellings remain vacant or underused while municipalities face rising housing needs, affordability crises, and land pressure. The project demonstrates that applying sufficiency and adaptability principles to the built environment can unlock affordable, sustainable, and inclusive housing, while reducing land take and embodied carbon.
Four pilot municipalities and their local consortia – Chalandri (EL), Mechelen (BE), La Rochelle (FR), Hrastnik (SI) – will co-design placebased transformation strategies rooted in sufficiency, adaptability and the New European Bauhaus values. Demonstration actions will include: adaptive reuse of refugee heritage housing in Chalandri, home-sharing and co-living solutions in Mechelen, densification paired with biodiversity-friendly gardens in La Rochelle, and reactivation of vacant municipal housing for vulnerable groups in Hrastnik.
The project, supported by transversal partners, will:

• Develop 4 place-based transformation strategies integrated into municipal policies and plans.
• Deliver pilot demonstrations preparing or transforming over 80 housing units.
• Implement 10 housing micro-experiments in additional cities through subcontracted providers.
• Produce a transferable methodology and toolkit for housing transformation.
• Strengthen municipal and local actor capacities through training, mentoring, e-learning modules and a Summer School.
• Formulate policy recommendations to address barriers at local and national levels, engaging policymakers to support the broader adoption of sufficiency and adaptability.

By combining (community) diagnostics, participatory design, creative storytelling and replication, LIFE RE-HOME will empower municipalities to reuse vacant and underused buildings, foster social cohesion, and contribute to the European Green Deal, the Affordable Housing Plan and the zero net land take goal.