We firmly believe that cultural heritage adaptive reuse can become a driver of urban regeneration and sustainable development. Through the adaptive reuse of abandoned and underused buildings in the circular economy perspective, we can give back to people new spaces recovering what was perceived once as a waste with lots of added benefits: a better quality of the environment; healthier and safer cities; sustainable economic development; new spaces for social interaction, cultural and creative activities leaving no one behind.
This is clearly observed in more than 100 cultural heritage adaptive reuse best practices collected in the CLIC Knowldege and Information Hub, an open digital platform which allows researchers and practitioners to access a wide range of data ranging from characteristics of buildings to new uses assigned to them; from investments to the impacts generated up to an assessment of “circularity” building blocks. The platform is ready to host also information about reused, underused and abandoned cultural heritage in CLIC pilot cities: Salerno, Rijeka, Västra Götaland region, Amsterdam (coming soon!).
A lot of work has been carried out in CLIC during the last year: from the first release of the Decision Support System to the perceptions maps and economic landscape maps in CLIC pilots. The Local Action Plans for the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage as circular city strategy are ongoing in all CLIC pilots, involving about 250 local stakeholders joining the Heritage Innovation Partnerships.
In Västra Götaland region, Sweden, the Circular Business Model workshop involved about 50 local innovators for 3 days to work on circular innovation in the business model of Not Quite, a local organization that reused an abandoned industrial heritage building through a bottom-up public-private-people approach.
In Salerno, Italy, an open Call for Ideas was launched for the adaptive reuse of 4 large cultural heritage buildings, the so-called “Edifici Mondo”, abandoned since more than 30 years. Citizens, associations, enterprises, and all stakeholders have been invited to join the Call sharing their most brilliant ideas. We are excited to know the results in May, followed by a new co-creation workshop to define together a feasibility plan of the adaptive reuse of the Edifici Mondo.
We believe in collaboration as the pillar of a better, fairer and more sustainable society.
For this reason, we have been around a lot to create synergies with other EU-funded projects working on cultural heritage, to share experiences and learn from each other by combining different approaches and perspectives to achieve a common objective: building more inclusive, safer, resilient and sustainable cities, through the enhancement, conservation and adaptive reuse of our European cultural heritage in “CLIC” way, that is to say from the circular economy perspective.
We have taken part in many networking events organized by the European Commission. In March we attended the “EU Research and Innovation for Cities of the Future” to fly to Thessaloniki in September for the Open Living Lab Days giving our contribution to the report on the Human-Centred City: Opportunities for Citizens through Research and Innovation. We were invited to the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities in October highlighting the many economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits that derive from the reuse, smart renovation and transformation of disused heritage places for individuals and society.
We started telling you a little something about the many activities we have carried out in recent months and the main findings achieved so far. We are proud of our past but we are even prouder of our future! Let’s discover it together…
As recommended by the tenth World Urban Forum, it’s time to create cities of opportunities connecting Culture and Innovation. CLIC wants to concretely support the realization of a Circular City by linking past and future, recognizing the key role that creativity and innovation can play in shaping a circular world. That’s why we announce you that CLIC will launch a Startup Competition sponsored by SEMED – Startup Europe Mediterranean platform to award the most innovative business ideas and promising startups to boost innovation in the cultural heritage sector inspired to the circular economy principles, tackling the Covid-19 crisis through new ideas for a better future. We consider culture, human and ecosystems health as strictly intertwined.
The CLIC Startup Competition will give innovators the possibility to receive mentoring from industry experts that will support the development of their business ideas during a 4 months mentoring programme. Keep your ears and eyes open and stay tuned: great news are coming!
