The New Transformation Meter: A new evaluation instrument for matching the market supply of vacant office buildings and the market demand for new homes

It is important to have an effective means of determining the transformation potential of office buildings that are unoccupied or are likely to become unoccupied in the near future. We need to be able to measure this transformation potential both at location and at building level, and it will be convenient to be able to carry out both a quick, superficial appraisal (which we may call a ‘quick scan’) and a more thorough, detailed study (a ‘feasibility scan’). To this end, we have developed what we call a ‘transformation potential meter’ (Geraedts and Van der Voordt, 2000, 2003). The meter has been tested in practice by a number of market players, and has also been widely used by students of architecture who are nearing the end of their degree course. As befits good students, they have subjected the instrument to critical appraisal. This practical application has allowed the transformation potential meter to be evaluated and refined in 2006. Two new steps - the financial feasibility scan and the risk assessment checklist – have also been added to permit further investigation of the feasibility of a transformation project. In this paper, we describe the principle of the new transformation potential meter and its position in the Go/No Go decision-making process in the initial phase of a transformation project.