USEAct Urban Sustainable Environmental Actions Fifth Meeting I Implementation Phase Riga Planning Region | Latvia 25th I 26th September 2014 INTERVENTIONS ON “REUSE” OF URBAN REFITTING AND REGENERATING INHABITED BUILDINGS AND AREAS Lead Partner Host Partner USEAct Riga Planning Region Fifth meeting Report Urban Sustainable Environmental Actions 2 Lead Partner City of Naples Urban Planning Department URBACT Projects_and Networks on Integrated Urban Development Policies - Central Direction Urban Planning and Management - UNESCO Site Gaetano Mollura USEAct Project coordinator Anna Arena Finance officer Maria Luna Nobile Communication officer Vincenzo Fusco LSG coordinator Contacts: phone +39 081 7958932 - 34 - 17 email [email protected] [email protected] Lead Expert Vittorio Alberto Torbianelli USEAct Project Lead Expert Contacts: email [email protected] Thematic Expert Pauline Geoghegan USEAct Project Thematic Expert Contacts: email [email protected] www.urbact.eu www.urbact.eu/useact The report written by the thematic expert Pauline Geoghegan NB. this report refers to the seminar work, with Should be read in contributions of Gaetano Mollura conjunction with the Lead partner, Vittorio Torbianelli Power Points Lead expert and USEAct partners presented during the meeting, that attended the meeting. Anna which you can Arena, Maria Luna Nobile and download here Vincenzo Fusco, Lead partner team contributed to the editing of this report. Cover picture: View of Riga city © Riga Planning Region All the photos are taken by the USEAct Team. And images are taken from the ppt presented during the seminar. Contents 1. Introduction and Concept paper 4 3 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Concept paper 1.3 The USEAct Issues of the Fifth Thematic Seminar 2. Riga Planning Region - the host partner 6 2.1 Welcome of the host partner 2.2 Riga Planning Region Sustainable Development Strategy 2014-2030 and Development Programme 2014-2020 2.3 Urban regeneration- challenges in Riga City 2.4 Riga Planning Region Local Action Plan 2.5 Andrejsala - background and development 2.6 Creative Incubator, Rihards Zariņš, Director of Creative Incubator 2.7 Empty spaces = Public Spaces? The Free Riga movement - a new cultural approach towards urbanity? 3. The USEAct theme: Refitting and regenerating inhabited buildings and areas 13 3.1 Introduction 3.2 USEAct Case studies 3.3 Case study 1: Studies and analysis on the definition of Urban Regeneration: Urban Social and economic indicators 3.4 Case study 2 Naples: the Si.Re.Na. Project 3.5 Case study 3 Viladecans: Urban remodelling of residential Ponent, polygon and renewal of the extension of the Montserratina 4. The life of the network 23 4.1 URBACTII next steps of the programme 4.2 USEAct Local Action Planning 4.2.1 Framework and Improvement of the Local Action Plan Implementation 4.2.2 The EU urban landscape 4.2.3 LAPs Review Cafè 4.3 USEAct future planning and administration 4.3.1 A proposal: New Heroes and USEACT cooperation 4.3.2 Administrative and financial issues and feedbacks on the Project Reprogramming 4.3.3 General issues of the Network Management - Next steps 4.4 USEAct Bilateral/Trilateral meetings 4.4.1 Second B/T meeting “Differentiating Interventions: Real Estate developments based on innovation and knowledge based activities” 4.4.2 Third B/T meeting: “Differentiating Interventions: Urban uses and textures” 4.4.3 The Fourth B/T meeting “Smart data and visualization tools” 4.4.4 Planning the fifth and sixth B/T meeting in Dublin 4.4.5 Capitalisation of the B/T meetings Appendix 1 programme of the meeting and meeting participants 41 4 FIFTH THEMATIC SEMINAR IMPLEMENTATION PHASE INTERVENTIONS ON “REUSE” OF URBAN REFITTING AND REGENERATING INHABITED BUILDINGS AND AREAS Fourth meeting participants 1.INTRODUCTION AND Dagnis Straubergs Chairman of Riga Planning Region CONCEPT PAPER Development Council Jānis Miezeris, Head of Administration of Riga Planning Region, Agnese Bīdermane USEAct Project Coordinator,Riga Planning 1.1 Introduction Region Rūdolfs Cimdiņš Riga Planning Region Guntars Ruskuls Head of Strategic Planning Division The fifth USEAct thematic meeting of City Development Department of Riga City took place in the city of Riga, at the Uldis Apinis, Spatial Planner of Building Board of Ogre heart of the Riga Planning Region, City Edgars Pārpucis Spatial Planner of Building Board of Ogre City ULSG member Dace Grīsle Acting Head of focusing on the theme of residential Development Department of Ogre City Iveta Zālīte buildings in the heart of our cities, Spatial Planner of Spatial Planning Department of often in poor conditions: how to create Ķekava ULSG member Zane Koroļa Urban Planner regeneration strategies and on of Tukums ULSG member Pēteris Šķiņķis University of involving residents in refitting Latvia Gunta Lukstiņa Expert Sandra Plēpe Expert Valters Māziņš “Riga Development Company” strategies through energy efficiency. Rihards Zariņš Director of Creative Incubator In addition to thematic presentations and relevant Jonas Buechel Director of Urban Institute | Gaetano case studies provided by the USEAct partners, the Mollura USEAct Coordinator | Vittorio Torbianelli meeting was enriched by contributions by guest Lead Expert | Pauline Geoghegan Thematic Expert | expert Germana di Falco, expert advisor on Germana Di Falco Ad hoc Expert | Ivan Tosics URBACT Structural funds and Local Action Plans, who Secretariat | Paul Pece, Baia Mare Metropolitan Area provided the network partners with valuable Association | John O’ Hara, Kehinde Olowatosin City guidance on approaching key issues of funding. Other participants to the meeting were Wouter of Dublin | Álvaro Cerezo Ibarrondo, City of Barakaldo | Goedheer, who presented ‘New Heroes’, and Ivan Jim Sims , Buckinghamshire Business First | Štefan Tosics, URBACT Thematic Pole Manager who gave Lancarič , USEAct coordinator, Kamila Gejdosova, an update on the present and future URBACT National URBACT Authority, Ministry of Transport City of programme as well as timely pointers to potential Nitra | Linda Iren K. Duffy, Local Coordinator, Østfold County | Michela Crevatin Trieste City Council | Enric Serra del Castillo, Sonia Dominguez City of Viladecans | Wouter Goedheer, New Heroes EU funding sources, and the participants and other strategies, mainly through promoting energy experts from Riga city and region who presented the efficiency or in overall “property management” issues facing the city and its surrounding areas. improvements. Literature is full of “case studies” On the former industrial site at Andrejsala, a port about successful (and unsuccessful) attempts to 5 area close to the city centre, participants visited a structurally modernize inhabited buildings. Several creative business incubator site where many new factors appear to be crucial, such as: small businesses receive support and fruitful -identifying the right “scale” of interventions, networking. There they were challenged by inputs avoiding both an excessively small scale – e.g. a on the Free Riga movement, a community based single building – or a too large one; NGO promoting new forms of communication within -developing the capacity to correctly identify the “a the city sphere. priori” economic/financial break-even point of the The Riga meeting was the last of the USEAct redevelopment process and the likely availability of thematic seminars: the next meeting, in public and private funds, given that renovation costs Buckinghamshire, UK, in January 2015, will focus for such kind of interventions, are very relevant (with on involving Managing Authorities, as well as a high risk of not being affordable if compared to other solutions); finalising the Local Action Plans in each partner -the capacity to couple the best fitting technology area. This will entail preparing exhibitions in each (in terms of “value for money”) with effective long- partner city as well as during the final conference in term financial and facility management frameworks; April, in Naples. In the meantime bi/tri-lateral -a strong engagement of inhabitants and citizens, meetings continue to take place, with the last ones also through securing clear financial returns. due to happen in Dublin. Outcomes from four bi/trilateral meetings that had taken place in All these above mentioned targets require Viladecans and Naples were shared in Riga. innovative approaches either from the technical, financial and facility management point of view (e.g. 1.2 Concept Paper through new “operators” and partnership models) or USEAct Lead Expert, Vittorio Alberto Torbianelli from the social and cultural perspective. During the UseAct meeting, opportunities and challenges but The USEAct thematic seminar in Riga also limits and difficulties related to interventions in "occupied" buildings were discussed, also through was dedicated to “occupied” cases studies from other cities. Special attention residential buildings, seen as a was given to engaging the inhabitant, which is a potential resource to be optimized and very sensitive aspect. With reference to all the adapted to the requirements of current above mentioned topics, partners were invited to demand, to reduce the need to build provide information and comments about each local context. new residential settlements with negative land-take consequences. 1.3 The USEAct issues of the Fifth Existing buildings placed in historic areas of the Thematic Seminar cities (or in more recently built urban areas - e.g. USEAct Lead Expert, Vittorio