Belgian architect Luc Schuiten envisages that in 2100 “Sustainable development will have become a pleonasm”, and as such, all urban development will inevitably be sustainable. Future cities will see new living and working habits, mobility and interfaces intersecting and co-existing with the natural environment. Local authorities will play a role in this transformative change, notably by working on infrastructure: creating green spaces out of abandoned buildings and spaces, joining the urban net, enabling a pedestrian connexion and infrastructure from one neighbourhood to another. Notwithstanding the environmental benefit of such measures, public spaces will also become spaces for creativity, learning and exchange.

Laeken 1800- 2200, La Cité végétale, Luc Schuiten. Source: Vegetalcity. 

This article looks closer at the need for green revitalisation and regeneration in the context of the URBACT GreenPlace Action Planning Network, one of  30 URBACT Action Planning Networks running from June 2023 to December 2025. Led by Wroclaw (PL), GreenPlace addresses unused, abandoned and forgotten places with green revitalisation and regeneration efforts – all involving the local community. 

The issue of forgotten and unused urban spaces

The urban landscape in Europe has evolved over the last decades. Former industrial or rail infrastructures, factories, construction sites, slaughterhouses, large health and social care facilities, shopping centres, offices or incomplete buildings and city centres, former military barracks, parks and greenfields – a variety of buildings and spaces have lost their original functions, left unused, abandoned and/or forgotten. 

Bucharest Delta. Source: Marcelline Bonneau.

These buildings and sites can be abandoned or unused for a variety of reasons:

- radical changes, conditioned by historical or economic events;

- negative connotations linked to places;

- the natural toll of time pr dereliction;

- social, historical and economic changes in a city;

- population shifts from rural to urban areas and changes in residential patterns (e.g. larger houses, fewer people per family unit);

- the low price of undeveloped greenfield land compared with the high cost of redeveloping land (e.g. regeneration of brownfields); or

- becoming too expensive to maintain.
 

Addressing the management of these under-used land, spaces and buildings is a key focal point of European regional development policy and funding frameworks. On the one hand, if nothing is done, these spaces will have a negative impact on the environment and biodiversity. For example, former storage and manoeuvring yards can form ‘heat islands’ and stored pollution can lead to further problems related to, among other things, rainwater management. Unused public spaces can also negatively impact land use, not accounting for land pressure and uncontrolled urban development (sprawl), and socio-economic inequity and insecurity. 

On the other hand, if we do something, we’ll see a positive impact on the environment. Nature-based solutions, brownfield regeneration, green infrastructure and other technical green solutions – including retrofitting or energy networks – can increase biodiversity, protect habitats, attract new fauna and flora  and integrate climate adaptation solutions, for example, related to rainwater management, water retention, cool islands, etc.  

Cities involved in URBACT networks, such as Lille (FR) and Heerlen (NL), serve as case studies on the positive impact of greener rehabilitated public spaces in their communities. Policy recommendations for the reuse of spaces and buildings include, among others: involving architects and planners in the development of land-use plans; fixing realistic land and financial budgets; considering public-private partnership models.

The need to develop green revitalisation and regeneration

Green revitalisation and regeneration are a prominent way of addressing unused, forgotten and abandoned places, both as a means to sustainable urban development and ends in themselves. The most common principles underpinning these concepts are addressed in the following approaches:

GreenPlace: 10 cities revitalising forgotten urban spaces with local communities

The above approaches to green revitalisation and regeneration form the core of the GreenPlace Action Planning Network. Led by the City of Wroclaw (PL), partner cities include Boulogne-sur-mer Développement Côte d’Opale (FR), Bucharest-Ilfov Metropolitan Area Intercommunity Development Association (RO), Cehegin (ES), Limerick (IE), Löbau (DE), Nitra (SK), Onda (ES), Quarto d’Altino (IT) and Vila Nova De Poiares (PT).

The variety of partner profiles stresses the richness and added value of such a diverse partnership. Some of these cities are small (e.g. Vila Nova de Poiares has 7.281 inhabitants) others are very large (e.g. Bucharest-Ilfov, with 2.298.000 inhabitants). Some are rural areas (e.g. Quarto d’Altino), some are very urban (e.g. Wroclaw), while others are considered developed (e.g. Limerick) or less developed (e.g. Nitra).

The partner cities may be in different stages of green revitalisation and community engagement. They may face different contexts and challenges, as indicated in the GreenPlace baseline study, which details the context, methodology and roadmap of the Action Planning Networks. Regardless of these differences, they are already learning so much from each other!

In particular, city partners are focusing on the following main categories of forgotten and unused urban spaces:

- Abandoned buildings: a Noodle Factory in Löbau, a Civic Centre in Quarto d’Altino;

- Forgotten buildings (yet, partially in use): the Popowice Tram Depot in Wroclaw, the Victorei Tram Depot in Bucharest-Ilfov; 

- Unused green areas: a medieval wall in Limerick, a Green Zone in Vila Nova de Poiares, Ejidos in Cehegin; and

- Unused built areas: a future Green Lung in Onda, the Station-Bréquerecque area in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Martin’s Hill – a former military barracks site in Nitra.

In Löbau, partners have reported back on involving the local community in plans to revitalise an abandoned factory site.

URBACT Action Planning Networks: greener horizons

More updates are still to come from the GreenPlace Action Planning Network as the work progresses. 

In the broader scheme of the URBACT IV programme, GreenPlace is not the only URBACT Action Planning Networks making cities greener. COPE, Let’s Go Circular, BiodiverCity, Eco-Core and In4Green are a few others worth exploring!

This article was updated in April 2024. The original version was submitted by Marcelline Bonneau on 19/12/2023.

Participatory effect

Lead Partner Øystein Leonardsen have a lot of experience in testing methods for citizen engagement and explains that “in the city planning COPE seek to strengthen the empowerment of the citizens and their individual ownership through engaging and co-creative methods”. 

The COPE project seeks to push three levels of change: the structural, the individual and the societal. We do not only need to make the structural changes through policymaking and governance in a traditional top-down process. We have tried, but our societal challenges are getting more and more complicated and the traditional processes of finding solutions falls short. If we do not develop new methods going from looking at our challenges as something technical easy to fix with a simple technological solution, to looking at our challenges as so-called wicked problems with no clear single answer the risk is that we evoke opposition and conflict in the society.

We cannot let the individual change stand alone either relying on a bottom-up transition. This can be overwhelming and create anxiety at individual level.

In the process of policy making we need to create People's acceptance of inconvenience or cost and link this to their understanding of the importance and share the experience of ownership. We as human beings care more about the decisions and things we have contributed to or created ourselves. We call this the participatory effect. Read more about the participatory effect in relation to bottom-up collective citizen climate action on page 49 in “Omstilling på Vippen: Hvidbog om forbrug, adfærd og folkelig deltagelse i grøn omstilling” by DeltagerDanmark here (in Danish). It can be fuelled not only through information, but also through conversations, involvement, and co-ownership. We also use the term social tipping point when talking about this societal level, where the change is becoming a norm that people start to follow. In our COPE city Vilnius a bright example of the co-ownership transforming a local area into a vibrant and inspiring green area is the old hospital ground that through citizen engagement started with making urban gardening evolving into creating a place for gatherings, eating and experimenting with a green lifestyle and is now functioning as a solid local community creating new ideas and initiatives.  

In COPE we aim to find methods for working towards positive social tipping points in favour of the just green transition where as many as possible feel included or represented in the decisions and solutions. Just as we aim to avoid negative social tipping points like we saw with the yellow wests in France for example.

Building capacity – we learn from each other.

Our city network COPE consists of A Coruña (ES), Bistrita (RO), Copenhagen (DK), Kavala (EL), Korydallos (EL), Pombal (PT), Saint Quentin (FR) and Vilnius (LT). Our cities are very different on all levels; political, cultural, and societal. We have quite diverse narratives about the interaction between our political institutions and the citizens. But all cities are very eager to work together and learn from each other sharing knowledge and experiences.

In each partner city a group of local stakeholders and citizens have been put together in a so called Local URBACT Group with the local municipality functioning in a new role as facilitator. And particularly this role as facilitator in the local groups is something that COPE aim to mirror in the bigger picture on local level. Through participatory and deliberative processes, we seek to explore the interface between the citizens participation and the governance structures and culture. How do we as a municipality co-create with our local citizens? How do we make certain that we do not invite into processes that have no mandate, no power, and no real influence?

Sustainable urban development – going very local

As you see we have many questions, that we aim to find answers to during the project. Our approach for this ambitious goal is to zoom in on a local neighbourhood in the city. Through this place-based focus we will engage the local community; the citizens, the institutions and the industries and explore what is at stake in this neighbourhood. What hopes and ambitions do they have for their neighbourhood and how do they see themselves and their neighbourhood in the shift towards a more sustainable lifestyle? Do they agree on the needed actions? Do they need to agree, and can they reach a common understanding? How can they work on fulfilling their ambitions? What can be done today with local resources and what do the municipality need to plan and find funding for?

Change of mindset - Knowledge to action

No real change come from above alone. The changes we confront are so enormous, that we as individuals easily get caught in despair, hopelessness or anger and frustration and that we as governance institutions may give up and just follow the short-term populistic perspective.

The next two years of 2024 and 2025 each COPE city will work on both local and network level to find and experiment with methods for working towards positive social tipping points in favour of the just green transition. Seeking to push for a shift in mindset, not only within political institutions and the governance and planning processes of our cities. But also, through acknowledging the local knowledge, hopes and ambitions of the citizens and local interests evoking trust and engagement. This, we believe, will foster sustainable change within our society – no more no less 😊

Please follow our work and let us know if you find the Philosopher's Stone. We would love to engage and share!