Why are we demolishing homes during a housing crisis? | Olaf Grawert

Summary

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TED Talks Daily – "Why are we demolishing homes during a housing crisis?"

Speaker: Olaf Grawert | Date: December 4, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, architect Olaf Grawert challenges the prevailing logic behind demolishing habitable buildings during an ongoing housing crisis, focusing particularly on Europe. Drawing attention to the economic, social, and environmental costs of continual demolition and new construction, Grawert proposes a bold shift: renovation and transformation of existing buildings as a sustainable, community-centered alternative. He illustrates his argument with compelling data, personal stories, and a model project by French architects Lacaton & Vassal, ultimately calling for systemic change at both legal and societal levels.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Emotional and Human Cost of Demolition

• Paris Hilton’s Story as a Touchstone
  Grawert opens with Paris Hilton's public reflection on losing her home to wildfire, using it as an entryway to highlight the emotional trauma of involuntary loss.

  “It's not only the walls and the roofs that we demolish. It's the memories, the communities, and the sense of belonging that we demolish, too. And all of it at the cost of the people and the planet.”
  — Olaf Grawert [03:47]

Demolition for Profit: The Real Logic Behind the Trend

• Profit, Not Necessity:
  The primary reason for demolition isn’t damage or inefficiency, but financial gain:

  “As an architect who works on renovation, I can tell you it's not because these buildings are broken... It's not only the walls and roofs that we demolish. It's the memories, the communities, and the sense of belonging that we demolish too.”
  — Olaf Grawert [04:54]

• Commodification of Housing:
  Grawert describes how real estate speculation treats homes as replaceable commodities, where value is calculated solely by potential profit, not human or ecological factors:

  “To speculators, your house is a commodity... just like an old toaster, you don't fix it, you replace it.”
  — Olaf Grawert [05:17]

The Environmental Impact: A Largely Ignored Crisis

• Massive Waste and CO2 Emissions:
  • Construction is Europe’s largest waste producer (36% of all waste).
  • The building sector is the top emitter of CO2 globally (38%), dwarfing activities like flying.

  “All the energy it takes to demolish a building and all the energy it takes to rebuild a building is only unleashed because the real values, the social and the ecological values, are not accounted in our system.”
  — Olaf Grawert [06:23]

The Housing Crisis: Social and Economic Impacts

• Worsening Affordability and Homelessness:
  • Millions struggle to find affordable homes.
  • Even middle-class Europeans are increasingly outpriced; homelessness is rising.
  • Yet, demolitions continue, compounding the crisis.

How Policy and Incentives Favor Demolition Over Renovation

• Post-War Policy Legacy:
  • Construction booms after WWII were enabled by policies strongly favoring new builds (tax incentives, subsidies, building codes, risk insurance, and credit systems).
  • These systems still shape today’s renovation-unfriendly legal and financial environment:

  “It still trains us to assume that the new is always better than the old. And it's at the core of our legal system, which makes it not only less profitable... but also much, much harder to renovate and transform.”
  — Olaf Grawert [06:23 - 09:30]

Shifting Paradigms: The Potential of Renovation and Transformation

The Lacaton & Vassal Model (Bordeaux Grand Parc)

• A Real-World Alternative:

  • Lacaton & Vassal (with Durand and Hutin) renovated 530 social housing units in Bordeaux without displacing residents.
  • Prefabricated elements were installed on the facade to create new winter gardens and larger windows, increasing space, light, and quality of life.
  • The process was quick (about two weeks/unit), cost-effective (one third the price of new construction), and far more generous in design.

  “The most sustainable house is the one already built.”
  — Olaf Grawert [14:20]
  “It takes two weeks to improve everybody's life, to cut down the heating bills and to boost local businesses working on renovation. And all of it at a third of the costs of a standard new apartment: €55,000 for the renovation of one apartment compared to €165,000 for new construction.”
  — Olaf Grawert [14:00]

• Adaptability of Approach:
  Grawert assures that almost any building can be renovated if legal barriers are relaxed, making this alternative scalable and versatile.

Systemic Change: Legal and Cultural Transformation

• Advocacy for New Laws and a Cultural Shift:
  • Grawert and colleagues have launched a pan-European citizens’ initiative:

    "Renovate. Don’t speculate."
    — Olaf Grawert [15:22]

  • The goal is to mobilize 1 million citizens in support—mirroring the online attention a single celebrity home loss can generate—and push for legal reforms prioritizing renovation, not demolition.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Value vs. Price:

  “Value and price are actually not the same. The question shouldn't only be what is the value of a house? But what is the price to your home?... These are the hidden costs of demolition that no one speaks about.”
  — Olaf Grawert [06:23]

• On Systemic Obsolescence:

  “The demolition of buildings is just as outdated as food waste, animal testing, or single-use plastics.”— Olaf Grawert [15:40]

• On Collective Action:

  “If that many people can show support for one home lost in fire, imagine the impact that we can make together for the millions of homes that are up for demolition right now.”
  — Olaf Grawert [15:52]

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Notable Timestamps

• 03:47 — Opening example of Paris Hilton’s destroyed home and the emotional resonance of demolition.
• 04:54 — Grawert’s core assertion: demolition is about profit, not necessity.
• 06:23 — The environmental and social costs of demolition.
• 09:30 — Post-war construction policies and their lasting effect on housing policy.
• 12:50 — Case study: Lacaton & Vassal’s Bordeaux Grand Parc project (background, figures, outcomes).
• 14:50 — The call for a new European legal and value system around renovation.
• 15:22 — Introduction of the "Renovate. Don’t speculate." European citizens’ initiative.
• 15:52 — Final rallying call for collective action.

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Summary Takeaways

• Demolishing homes during a housing crisis is driven by speculative profit, not genuine need.
• This approach exacts a steep social and environmental price, rarely factored into policy or practice.
• Sustainable, humane alternatives exist—chief among them, renovation and transformation of existing buildings, as exemplified by successful European models.
• Shifting this paradigm requires broad legal reform and citizen engagement, catalyzed by movements like "Renovate. Don’t speculate."
• The most sustainable home is the one we already have—and preserving it is both a moral and pragmatic imperative.

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For more information on the “Renovate. Don’t speculate.” initiative and ways to support, Olaf Grawert encourages listeners to join the movement and advocate for policy change across Europe.

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Transcript

[Elise Hu]

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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Every minute somewhere in Europe, a house is demolished, and with it the memories and sense of community it holds. Architect Olaf Gravert exposes the human and environmental cost of demolition for profit, highlighting a bold alternative that could address the growing housing crisis and create sustainable, affordable homes to reshape the future of C.

[Olaf Gravert]

So on January 10, Paris Hilton shared a video of her house destroyed in the LA fire. Walking through the ruins, heartbroken, she said what breaks her heart even more is knowing that this isn't just her story. Because so many people have lost everything. And it's not just walls and roofs that the fire demolished. It's the memories and the stories that made those houses homes. Over 1 million. People liked her post, showing sympathy and support not only for her loss, but for the very idea behind it. Yet there's something that most of us don't realize, which is that every minute, somewhere in Europe, a house is demolished every minute. And it's not by wind, floods or fire, but by human hands. And honestly, this is something I don't get. Because it's not only the walls and the roofs that we demolish. It's the memories, the communities, and the sense of belonging that we demolish too. And all of it at the cost of the people and the planet.

So the question is, why do we even demolish buildings? As an architect who works on renovation, I can tell you it's not because these buildings are broken, and it's not because they cannot be renovated or fixed. It's also not because we want to save energy or build better buildings for those who currently live there. In one word, profit.

Today, real estate is the most valuable asset in the world. So a majority of the global money flows into the buying and selling of property. And I ask you, what promises most profit? New buildings, central apartments and trophy offices. In the logic of money, the old can never beat the new. And this fuels a constant cycle of demolition for new construction. Because in the logic of real estate speculators, every building is up for demolition. And this is something you have to understand. No, really, every house in which you live, that Promises more profit is up for demolition. Why? Because to speculators, your house is a commodity. It's a good and just like an old toaster, you don't fix it, you replace it. So why is demolition so profitable? Well, essentially, it's a question of values. So in our current system, the value of a building is measured only by its price. So in our real estate system, value and price are the same.

So if I ask you what is the value of a house, what is the value of this building, what would be the answer? Well, in a world in which value and price are the same, the answer shrinks to a few economic factors. It's very simple. It's square meters and land location and market potential. So this is the base how real estate speculators calculate. It's the base for the strategy. So they would buy a land, they pay the price for the building, they clear the land, which means they demolish the building, they build anew. So they add the construction costs and they divide it by the square meters. Essentially, this is what real estate speculation is about. How much profit you can extract from an existing building and how much money you can make once the old building is gone and the new one is built. It's a shockingly cold calculation that turns the profit of tomorrow into a wrecking ball today. And it's based on a spreadsheet that only counts money and it never asks what a building holds and who lives there. But value and price are actually not the same. No, there is a difference. So the question shouldn't only be what is the value of a house? But the question should also be what is the price to your home? Know, what is the price of the memories and the stories? So which price do we give to family bonds, to birthday celebrations, to also the fights with our partners and these moments of forgiveness? And what price tag do we also put on community on the neighborhoods that raise us, on the familiar faces in the hallway, on friendship, or on the larger scale, on the freedom of a next generation of to live. And these are the hidden costs of demolition that no one speaks about. The hidden costs that you will never find in a budget or in a spreadsheet. All of it happening in an era of severe housing crisis, where we all agree, where millions are struggling to find an affordable home, where young people cannot move out of their parents apartments, where working people are struggling to keep a roof over their head, and where even the middle class cannot afford property any longer. And beyond these struggles, homelessness is rising in almost every country. But it's not Only the people who suffer the planet suffers too, because the building sector is the biggest CO2 emitter on Earth, yet no one speaks about it. 38% come from the building industry, compared to roughly 3% for flying, a number that we discuss a lot, for instance. But it's not only the biggest CO2 emitter, it's also Europe's biggest waste producer. 36% of all the waste comes from the construction industry. And again, to put it in context, compared to only 8% from private households. So all the energy it takes to demolish a building and all the energy it takes to rebuild a building is only unleashed because the real values, the social and the ecological values, are not accounted in our system. So we are tearing down buildings and ironically, heating up both the planet and the housing market. So architects are part of this value chain. Architects are part of it, of real estate speculation, of demolition for new construction. But as a citizen, I'm suffering its consequences of rising temperatures and rising rents. So the question is, how can the whole value chain evolve? How can we evolve the value chain by looking differently at what we already have? And that's getting really interesting, because what do we have around us? Actually, Europe is already built. And that's really the good news. Europe is built. Why? Because after the Second World War, we introduced policies that made rebuilding fast, cheap and easy. And this system was basically based on three key emergency policies, industrial methods and public money. And all of it aimed at new construction. And even if we don't notice it day to day, this system still writes the rulebooks. No, it trains us today to still see the risk instead of seeing the potential. It still trains us to assume that the new is always better than the old. And it's at the core of our legal system, which makes it not only less profitable for the market, but also much, much harder to renovate and transform. Because all of it, tax incentives to subsidies, building codes to regulation, and risk insurances to credits, favor starting anew. The question is, what happens if we look at things differently? So now that we know it's rooted in this legal system the market builds its strategy on, and we know about the consequences, it's the moment where we can say, how do we shift it? And I think there, it's important to understand that we humans invented that system, so we have to make it work for us, instead of us working for the system. And this is what French architects Lacoteur and Vassal do. And I want to present you one of their works today. They look differently at what is already there to them. Every building is heritage, not because of its architectural style and. And not because once a famous person lived in there, but because they recognize the social and ecological value in the building. LAKOTAN Vassal they never demolish. They never demolish a building. They add, they build on, they renovate, they transform. And by doing so, they acknowledge all the energy stored in the walls and the roofs, from the thoughts to the labor, to the legacy, and even the CO2. And I want to show you one of their projects which proves that it's a real alternative, so that renovation and transformation are a real alternative. And we are back at the house, which is a social housing in France. The grand park in Bordeaux. 530 apartments that La Coton Vassalle, together with Durand and Hutin architects, transformed how all the residents stayed in the house while the building was renovated. They worked with prefabricated elements that were craned in. These elements arrived and were stacked in front of the existing building like a shelf, almost like a bookshelf that stands in front of the old. What they did in the second step is they opened up the old facade. They replaced the tiny old windows with big sliding doors, opening the interior to this new winter gardens, flooding the space with light and air, but also creating a generosity. It's a social gesture also. You create generosity for. For those who didn't have it before. And amazing views. And the numbers behind it are really stunning. Half a day to place the prefabricated element, two days to cut open the old facade, two days to plug in the new facade, and one week to renovate the interior. So it takes two weeks to improve everybody's life, to cut down the heating bills and to boost local businesses working on renovation. And all of it at a third of the costs of a standard new apartment. So €55,000 for the renovation of one apartment compared to 1:65 for new construction and the new apartment, a standard new apartment would never have the winter gardens, and it would never have the generosity that they can provide in their work, which is a proof that. That the most sustainable house is the one already built. And that's also the moment where I invite everybody to imagine that this could happen all over Europe. No, this could happen all around the world, because it is a real systemic alternative that actually could function anywhere. So now some of you might think, well, that's a nice story, but it won't work for my house, because I live in a single family home, because I own an old apartment in a block, in the city block. And this might be true, this might not be your way. But I can guarantee you as an architect that there's almost for every building a way to be renovated and transformed. So this can be your story. But and here is a but only if we manage to change the legal system that keeps the old value system in place. We have to understand that the real innovation and real evolution is finding and recognizing the value in the existing. Because the demolition of buildings is just as outdated as food waste, animal testing or single use plastics. All things that we as a society already agree on and have an understanding for. And this is why we we say we have to create a new system. We have to create a common path and focus on one collective goal, which is to house Europe in the existing. This is why we started an initiative, a European citizens initiative where which is a pan European project which has a clear renovate. Don't speculate. Our movement aims to become the largest architectural initiative advocating for new laws to make renovation and transformation the new norm, a social, ecological, but also economic alternative to demolition and new construction. And all with the support of 1 million citizens across the EU. And 1 million is not only the number of supporters we need, it's also the number of likes Paris Hilton got for her post. So I ask everyone if that many people can show support for one home lost in fire. Imagine the impact that we can make together for the millions of homes that are up for demolition right now. Thank you.

[Elise Hu]

That was Olaf Gravert speaking at TEDx Berlin, Germany in 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com curationguidelines and that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact checked by the TED Research team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little and Tansika Songmaniva. This episode was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balarazo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.

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