T-Factor challenges the waiting time in urban regeneration – i.e. the time in-between the adoption of the masterplan and its actual realization – to demonstrate how culture, creative collaboration and wide engagement can unleash vibrant urban hubs of inclusive urban (re)generation, social innovation and enterprise. The project targets early stage regenerations in a diversity of historic urban areas in London, Bilbao, Amsterdam, Kaunas, Milan and Lisbon, and provides their PPPs with a unique ecosystem of capacity-building for radically new city-making approaches. Leveraging local coalitions of actors, we will use the masterplans of the targeted regenerations as the starting point to steer collective inquiry into their meanings and narratives, co-create visions of future spaces, and put them on stage via meanwhile uses and experiences. Throughout the process, culture and creativity will support voice and engagement, and help enrich and steer the masterplans towards heritage and culture-relevant innovation and enterprise, and social and cultural integration. Via trans-disciplinary action research, we will keep track of change, and build on the insights to add iteratively new layers of collective reflection and action. This learning by making will continuously inform masterplans and PPPs, consolidating, adjusting and providing new directions of urban development rooted in shared goals of sustainable city-making. T-Factor will work as an international community of practice, delivering an innovative city-mentoring model which will create multiple collaborations between the pilot cities, advance cultural and creative hubs, universities, enterprises and social organizations partnering the project, so as to shape an international movement of capacity-building and knowledge co-creation for the transformative time in urban regeneration leveraging heritage, culture and creativity.
Project funding:
The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020”
Project results:
Thanks to the project, the 6 targeted pilot urban areas become more known by and attractive for citizens and stakeholders. Thanks to the cultural activities and meanwhile uses promoted in the areas, citizens positively change their perceptions of such areas, while the involved organizations demonstrate an interest in delivering more initiatives in the future.
The project activities effectively foster and catalyze the co-creation potential of communities and stakeholders, turning neglected areas into vibrant and recognizable labs of city making. Social, economic and cultural organizations further increase their interest in the regenerated areas, and the conversion rate between meanwhile and permanent uses grows over time, with the majority of actors involved in the meanwhile uses that permanently settle in the areas. The property values surrounding the areas show an increase from the baseline, and a growing number and diversity of stakeholders prove growing interest in buying or renting the area and establishing their activities.
Period of project implementation: 2020-06-01 - 2024-05-31
Project partners: AALBORG UNIVERSITET, Technical University of Dortmund, Politecnico di Milano, Fundacion Tecnalia Research and Innovation
