CLIC at the World Urban Forum

CLIC was invited at the tenth session of the World Urban Forum, the most important conference on cities and human settlements organized and convened by UN-Habitat, which took place in Abu Dhabi from 8-13 February 2020. This edition was dedicated to “Cities of opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation” and was meant to show their key role in shaping a sustainable urbanization and driving prosperity and socio-economic opportunities for all.

CLIC took the stage on February, 11 at the networking event on ‘Social and cultural innovation for sustainable cities: a myth or reality?’, organized by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) in collaboration with DG Research and Innovation and the European Network of Living Labs.

The session focused on co-creation actions to design and implement R&I agendas in cities discussing about three clusters developed by as many H2020 projects:

  • Living Labs: fostering co-creation and citizen engagement for sustainable urban regeneration (UNaLab)
  • Heritage Labs: promoting circular and inclusive adaptive re-use of cultural heritage (CLIC)
  • Capacity-building Labs: enhancing heritage as a resource for international cooperation (by ILUCIDARE)

This was a great opportunity for CLIC project to share its activities and objectives, witnessing how the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage can be a driver for urban sustainable development. Linking past and future, tradition and modernity, the reuse of abandoned and underused cultural buildings and assets, reconverted to meet the needs and expectations of today’s society, can generate positive impacts on the territory and local community, promoting a sustainable growth, creating new jobs, building new spaces ready to welcome people and engage them in social and creative activities, thus  increasing people wellbeing. The reuse of cultural heritage from circular economy perspective effectively contributes to build smarter,  more inclusive, resilient and propsperous cities, readier to cope with current and future urban challenges such as  environmental damage, climate change and social inequalities CLIC is proud to do its part in identifying innovative tools and business models to support cities in implementing the New Urban Agenda and achieving urban dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Pictures