The Netherlands is facing a severe housing crisis. There is a necessity to create 845.000 new homes due to its growing population by 2030 (NL Times, 2020). According to prognosis (Capital Value, 2020), the housing shortage is greater than recently estimated and will continue to grow. Especially in Groningen, where the Police office building is located, the need for housing is one of the greatest in the Netherlands (Dutch review, 2021).
In Groningen, the housing crisis influences rising property and rental prices. Consequently, it affects young people or families who cannot afford to buy property while students cannot find a place to live in general (Dutch review, 2021).
The transformation of the National Police in the Netherlands in 2013 brought new possibilities for urban redevelopment in particular city areas. Those possibilities could help tackle previously mentioned problems. Around 700,000 m2 of current real estate of the National Police will be divested in the upcoming ten years (HA Lab, 2021, p.5). Around 30% of real estate objects owned by the police in the Netherlands need to be redeveloped considering renovations or functional adaptation.
Building more houses is one of the ways to tackle the housing crisis, but it is crucial to understand that there is a possibility to transform an existing building into housing instead of solely building new ones. The design proposal for Vacant Police heritage in Groningen city aims to cope with previously mentioned social and economic problems. It is important and urgent to understand that adaptive reuse of the building can significantly influence life in the Netherlands.

Ten new countries were formed after World War I in Europe. One of them – Lithuania – got independent from the Russian Empire in 1918. More than 100 years of occupation left deep scars in Lithuania’s history. A revival became both an opportunity and a significant challenge. Two years after Lithuania got independent, the capital Vilnius was occupied by Poland and the second-largest city Kaunas was announced as the provisional capital. This significant historical moment determined radical transformations of Kaunas city. Restoring the Lithuanian identity, especially without Vilnius, became one of the major priorities. Therefore, trying to create Lithuanians’ architectural style served as a tool for inspiring society and for showing the advanced progress of the newly reborn country to the rest of Europe. These modernist buildings of Kaunas were named as the Architecture of Optimism. The positive feeling about Lithuania’s future was prevailing at that period because the country has not seen such radical progress of living environment in ages. In just 20 years Kaunas from countryside looking area became a modern, competitive city: the centre of academic, economic and political life. The city’s number of residents increased from 92 to 155 thousand (Vaitekūnas, 2021). This situation strongly influenced the architectural and urban identity of the city. From newly built individual art deco style houses to an art museum – distinctive modernist architectural style reflected the search for national identity and the turn towards the West. Architecture students that were coming back from abroad to independent Lithuania affected these searches drastically. The mix of modern Western approach and traditional values influenced previously mentioned distinction of architecture.