How to visualise the invisible: Revealing re-use of rural buildings by non-agricultural entrepreneurs in the region of Roeselare–Tielt (Belgium)

Various Aspects of the Genesis and Perspectives on Agricultural Brownfields in the Czech Republic

“…The decrease of agricultural enterprises is demonstrated to be a widespread structural change in European agriculture (Verhoeve et al, 2012;Jaarsma, de Vries, 2013). Jaarsma and de Vries (2013) used the decrease in the number of farm enterprises 1990-2007 (dairy farming in six EU countries) as a rough estimate of the number of abandoned farm buildings.…”

“…Spatial planning for rural brownfields in Europe is geared to questions of preserving the cultural heritage of traditional agricultural buildings (Garcia and Ayuga, 2007;Taasia), to diversification potential and acceptability of non-agrarian functionalities in the countryside (Verhoeve et al, 2012), or to land protection potential of rural brownfields revitalization (Garcia, Ayuga, 2007). The issue of the duality between traditional and modern agricultural buildings (duality between architectural and aesthetic quality and economic aspects), observed across Europe (Fuentes et al, 2010;Ruda, 1998;Tassinari et al, 2010), is greatly manifested in the former socialist countries (especially in terms of material, shape and technology unification of building collective farms with poor landscape consistency).…”

The Fourth Regime of Open Space

“…Many were assimilated in the fabric of growing villages or cities (second wave and transition to third regime). A study in the western part of Belgium [47] gives quantitative insights in the re-use dynamic of rural buildings and their immediate surroundings by non-agricultural actors. Functional intake of farm units by non-agricultural activities is an ongoing transformation of rural areas, and can at first sight be interpreted as a second-wave phenomenon: the open space and the living soil have little contribution to such activities, except as spatial setting or physical substrate.…”

“…However, an enquiry among local dwellers reveals a detailed picture about the public perception of the transformations taken place, unveiling the germs for a fourth regime strategy. Measuring the appreciation/perception (as proxy to "value") of the spatial impact of these illegal activities thus illuminates that in some cases this transformation carries the capacity to reinforce [47] the quality of rural areas and that re-use in reality is not per se a threat to sustainability. On the contrary, re-use may also be seen as an opportunity to preserve and give a continuity to highly-valued sites, and an opportunity to preserve and reinforce the quality of the surrounding open space.…”

Europe: the paradox of landscape change : A case-study based contribution to the understanding of landscape transitions

“…In particular urban centres generate demand for nearby recreational areas. Conversion of farms for residential purposes results in an increasing share of the population that has no real attachment to the farming sector (Verhoeve et al 2012;Verhoeve et al 2015), which is observed in the case studies in Heerde (NL) and Roskilde (DK).…”