Over the last thirty years, the desire for urbanity, identity and identification has above all been projected onto maintaining and converting derelict structures dating from the industrial era. As a contrast to the characterless buildings and cityscapes that are the same all over the world, these locations stand for a type of architecture that has specific features and relates to history and context, while at the same time offering space for current and future needs. These are powerful, unique locations in architecture and urban-planning terms, and they can become spaces full of potential.

These characteristics can be described as dynamic-stable. The simultaneous quality of stability and openness is what makes the locations so extraordinary and invites engagement with them. We use the word ‘loft’ as a term that sums up these urban qualities. In this sense, it is used to describe adaptable, flexible, and at the same time powerful spaces with identity in which people can live and work. The qualities of the loft are in that sense not limited to a single building –they can be transferred to the urban context as a whole.