Good practices for sustainable city neighbourhoods in Europe
The War forced Europe to rebuild itself in order to accommodate the expected boom in population. Big blocks of apartments are often located on the edge of cities where new investments seem reluctant to venture. Such buildings are nowadays a byword for unemployment in addition to social and physical decline. If dysfunctional characteristics of these areas are not removed, they will increasingly hinder the good economic functioning of European cities. The RESTATE project was an attempt to garner approaches and solutions to common problems occurring in this kind of housing by sharing experiences between policy-makers, housing companies and researchers. The methods used included literature research, statistical overviews, a survey and interviews of urban representatives. Case studies were at the heart of the project. This study targeted the cities of London and Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Finding out the general and specific factors influencing the emergence of problems and patterns of decline in each urban context was the first element in the research. Additionally, which policies have been used to counteract these problems and what items have been proven to be important in their success were identified. At the end of the research project, a comprehensive and practical handbook was written aiming to set out best practices for future sustainable developments in large post-war estates. This report contains a brief description of the estates that feature in the study. Whilst first impressions of the survey's results are given, the focus was drawn on the positive and negative aspects of the estates as seen through the eyes of the residents. The effects of the policies, along with concerns about the future of these estates, again according to the respondents, are at the forefront of the report. The hope is that it will be useful for policy-makers seeking to discover the context in which measures have been, or expect to be, successful in improving these city areas.