The first newspaper reports that demolition of the Centraal Beheer office complex was the most likely option appeared a year ago. The management of Centraal Beheer Achmea decided to leave the centre of Apeldoorn and put up for sale the 1972 complex that made Herman Hertzberger, insurance company Centraal Beheer and the town of Apeldoorn world famous. Real estate agents declared the complex to be ‘economically redundant and impossible to sell as an office building’ and ‘very dated’. It was clear that ‘the market’ had little affinity with a building so closely associated with the 1970s zeitgeist.

How differently the professionals see it. Centraal Beheer is a textbook example of structuralism (as an architectural movement) and an exemplary illustration of an office concept that expresses a non-hierarchical organisational structure. They see in the building a concept that physically expresses the mood of its times. Demolition had to be prevented because general public recognition for such modern monuments usually comes later. Zonnestraal in Hilversum was cited again this evening as a successful example of how such a landmark building can be preserved. But that example also shows that preservation for the sake of it can lead to uncomfortable situations when it comes to finding a new function. For even though it gleams again, the main Zonnestraal building still lies vacant, awaiting a new occupant.

While architectural lovers in the Netherlands were getting ready to battle for preservation, a buyer eventually appeared on the scene. This summer TCN Properties acquired ownership of the building. TCN made its name by buying properties and business parks with redevelopment in mind. Medy van der Laan, present on behalf of TCN on Monday evening, reassured those present that demolition was out of the question. Only the wing added in the 1990s, to a design by Hertzberger, might be axed. No one seems to mourn the immanent demolition of this glass-and-steel extension with tall open spaces. Van der Laan could divulge little about the exact plans TCN had in mind for Centraal Beheer, except perhaps that it might retain its office function. Mels Crouwel (in his capacity as Government Architect) and Janneke Bierman (chairwoman of Docomomo Nederland) could relax. Earlier that evening they had advocated maintaining the building’s original function. They even went a step further: the complex should be restored to its original condition.

It was a pity that the purchase by TCN meant there was no discussion about the desirability of preserving Centraal Beheer. After all, what is Centraal Beheer actually? Is the essence of the building, as NAi director Ole Bouman put it, a 'programmatic intensity' or a 'synchronisation', which he described as 'sharing time together for a while'? If it comes down to abstractions of this sort, then is preservation of Centraal Beheer a requisite? Bouman: 'If there’s no life left in the building, it’s worth a lot less'. Or is Centraal Beheer 'the story behind the building', which for Crouwel is a legitimate reason to preserve the building and leave it intact as far as possible. According to him Centraal Beheer (the organisation) is making a big mistake and should not relocate. Centraal Beheer (the building) is an icon, a free advertisement – ‘the anonymous tower into which it will move will not have the same impact’, he told the insurance firm. By not relocating, the firm would show that it was taking social responsibility for maintaining a piece of recently built heritage. The words 'social responsibility' were to be heard a number of times over the course of the evening.

Despite the 'social responsibility' that will rest heavily on the shoulders of the developer and architect, the complex has almost no connection to its surroundings, and there are problems with daylight. Although Hertzberger maintained on Monday evening that this was the first time he’d heard about problems of insufficient daylight – 'It’s actually a perfect building for people working at computer terminals’ – it cannot be denied that confinement on the lower floors of the office building can be detrimental to one’s mental wellbeing: lack of daylight, low ceiling height, the grey shades of the B2 blocks and the paving stones. It’s a sharp contrast to the images that circulated just after the opening: plants, colour, light, but almost all photos were taken from the upper levels.

Students from the Universities of Technology in Delft and Eindhoven explained their study into new functions for the building. Herman Hertzberger classified the numerous proposals they came up with as 'a bit like a colouring picture'. Yet he did admit that they were in keeping with the spirit of structuralism. After all, the building was designed to be able to evolve over time, and the structure should be able to accommodate new uses. The student proposals make painfully clear, however, that the structure and function of Centraal Beheer cannot be transformed that easily, and that the much-praised expandability and adaptability are not so straightforward in reality. The structure turns out to be very restrictive. A whole range of possible uses were tested during this process of ‘design research’ but apart from the usual ‘studios for artists’ option, not one function, except the original one, fits comfortably into the building.

Perhaps some buildings should simply become fond memories. Make a good book and a strong film, then demolish it. After that, a building can really acquire mythic proportions. That’s why the example of Frank van Klingeren’s Meerpaal in Dronten was cited during the debate. Just like Centraal Beheer, this building was designed to express an explicit social concept, unique and exemplary at once. Debate about whether to demolish or preserve the building did take place. The building (a roof over a central space) was preserved and the original function maintained, but the Meerpaal had to be radically renovated to meet new wishes. The ‘story’ (the building as a roofed square) that the professional community and a number of mostly elderly residents of Dronten hoped to preserve was lost through renovation, even though it was carried out carefully. Some of those who opposed demolition of the Meerpaal now doubt the wisdom of preserving the structure. In his introduction, Crouwel argued that some buildings can take more than others. Perhaps Centraal Beheer is such a building that cannot take so much and would be better as a pleasant memory.