Purpose – Across use adaptation is a possible way of dealing with long term vacant office buildings,
albeit previous research shows that there are many obstacles to be thrived. In The Netherlands several
successful transformations of offices into housing were completed. Nevertheless, transformations do
not take place on a large scale. High building costs are the main reason. Hence, new office
developments should anticipate future programmatic transformation. This paper seeks answers to the
questions: Is it possible to anticipate future programmatic change? To what extent will anticipation on
future possibilities influence building costs