Periodic Reporting for period 2 - T-Factor (Unleashing future-facing urban hubs through culture and creativity-led strategies of transformative time)
Période du rapport: 2021-12-01 au 2023-05-31
T-Factor’s mission is to boost novel approaches to urban regeneration, focussing on the key role that temporary or meanwhile uses can play in transforming the trajectories of masterplans and urban regeneration processes towards higher ambitions of quality of life for people and planet.
The focus of the project is on the so-called ‘waiting time’: that period of time, increasingly long vis-à-vis redevelopments that can last for years or even decades, that stands in between the approval of the masterplan on the one hand, and the actual delivery of the regenerated spaces on the other hand. Against rapidly changing conditions across our societies, economies and natural environments, we need to radically change the ways in which we make and remake cities - often based on rigid and deterministic processes. Temporary uses applied to the waiting time can essentially become a strategic testbed for the future of our cities, building better conditions not only for mitigating present and future risks, but ultimately to create shared public value and longer term impact.
Within this overarching mission, T-Factor seeks to achieve the following goals:
-To support voice, agency and inclusion of diverse publics in the co-creation and co-production of the urban areas under regeneration.
-To enable the formation of heritage, culture and creativity-led innovation ecosystems in the targeted areas, exploring novel thematic crossovers able to contribute to enterprise & job creation, social, economic & cultural inclusion, and to sustainable urban environments.
-To foster adaptive and resilient approaches to masterplans and public-private partnerships, transforming them into flexible structures that can better respond to existing and emerging needs and support urban developers in taking informed decisions over time.
Concretely, the project delivers programmes of meanwhile placemaking in the context of six early stage regeneration initiatives across Europe (T-Factor Pilots): Aleksotas in Kaunas, Amsterdam Science Park in Amsterdam, Euston in London, MIND in Milan, Trafaria in Lisbon and Zorrozaurre in Bilbao. These programmes address broad challenges of urban regeneration that are relevant to SDGs, via a mission-driven approach that sets concrete, achievable, time-bound steps towards these longer term challenges.
The focus of the project is on the so-called ‘waiting time’: that period of time, increasingly long vis-à-vis redevelopments that can last for years or even decades, that stands in between the approval of the masterplan on the one hand, and the actual delivery of the regenerated spaces on the other hand. Against rapidly changing conditions across our societies, economies and natural environments, we need to radically change the ways in which we make and remake cities - often based on rigid and deterministic processes. Temporary uses applied to the waiting time can essentially become a strategic testbed for the future of our cities, building better conditions not only for mitigating present and future risks, but ultimately to create shared public value and longer term impact.
Within this overarching mission, T-Factor seeks to achieve the following goals:
-To support voice, agency and inclusion of diverse publics in the co-creation and co-production of the urban areas under regeneration.
-To enable the formation of heritage, culture and creativity-led innovation ecosystems in the targeted areas, exploring novel thematic crossovers able to contribute to enterprise & job creation, social, economic & cultural inclusion, and to sustainable urban environments.
-To foster adaptive and resilient approaches to masterplans and public-private partnerships, transforming them into flexible structures that can better respond to existing and emerging needs and support urban developers in taking informed decisions over time.
Concretely, the project delivers programmes of meanwhile placemaking in the context of six early stage regeneration initiatives across Europe (T-Factor Pilots): Aleksotas in Kaunas, Amsterdam Science Park in Amsterdam, Euston in London, MIND in Milan, Trafaria in Lisbon and Zorrozaurre in Bilbao. These programmes address broad challenges of urban regeneration that are relevant to SDGs, via a mission-driven approach that sets concrete, achievable, time-bound steps towards these longer term challenges.
In this period, we implemented the following core activities:
>full implementation of meanwhile programmes across the six pilot cities, including via support of the T-Labs;
>ongoing actions of critical friend and coaching to the pilots;
>monitoring & evaluation;
>actions of communication, dissemination, & strategic clustering with other projects and initiatives.
Core results:
-+80 meanwhile activities/uses developed, actively involving +2200 beneficiaries (a large number from vulnerable groups). Examples of MUs under delivery include: upskilling/reskilling paths; urban nature and biodiversity explorations; reusing and recycling hotspots and events; thematic exhibitions, fairs and festivals on greening and urban nature; civic curricula on climate resilience, circularity and social rituals; artefacts and installations that harvest and showcase local memories; urban trails.
-+1 MLN has been raised from external funding sources to further sustain local activities.
-The relationship with developers/regeneration stakeholders and influence of T-Factor over the local regeneration plans differs from pilot to pilot. In places such as MIND, Aleksotas and Euston there are stable and close relationships and the project is contributing to the redevelopments in various ways i.e. getting social, inclusion, and environmental priorities higher on local agendas. An important achievement has been reached for Aleksotas, where thanks to T-Factor, temporary uses have been introduced as a specific measure within the Development Plan for the area. In Amsterdam, despite initial challenges and difficulties in engaging actively with site’s owners and developers, there have been important evolutions relating to the contribution of the project to the green agenda of the area and the openness of decision makers to ecological temporary interventions. In Trafaria and Zorrotzaurre, the situation is instead more critical, due to uncertainty around the future of the areas, and situations of more or less explicit tensions and social conflict. In both cases, T-Factor is actively empowering the voice of local communities that would otherwise be barely heard.
We have further strengthened the outreach & dissemination channels/activities:
-presented T-Factor in the context of 24 external events, most at EU/international levels.
-organised 11 events at project level to disseminate results and outputs.
-co-organised 2 clustering events with the Hub-In and Centrinno projects on impact assessment in urban regeneration; co-participated to the World Urban Forum, Katowice Jun'22; co-organised 1 clustering workshop for policy recommendations; co-manage a cross-projects working group on impact assessment.
- organised 4 knowledge exchange webinars on different topics, involving various partners across pilots, T-Labs, meanwhile use practitioners, academics, students, urban planners.
- created several video clips and outputs on temporary uses (see the News page of T-Factor’s website and YouTube channel).
T-Factor had 104 appearances in newspapers, websites/blogs, radio & TV. It was disseminated through 8 publications (4 of them scientific), 5 press releases, 12 blog posts within partners’ & local stakeholders’ websites.
>full implementation of meanwhile programmes across the six pilot cities, including via support of the T-Labs;
>ongoing actions of critical friend and coaching to the pilots;
>monitoring & evaluation;
>actions of communication, dissemination, & strategic clustering with other projects and initiatives.
Core results:
-+80 meanwhile activities/uses developed, actively involving +2200 beneficiaries (a large number from vulnerable groups). Examples of MUs under delivery include: upskilling/reskilling paths; urban nature and biodiversity explorations; reusing and recycling hotspots and events; thematic exhibitions, fairs and festivals on greening and urban nature; civic curricula on climate resilience, circularity and social rituals; artefacts and installations that harvest and showcase local memories; urban trails.
-+1 MLN has been raised from external funding sources to further sustain local activities.
-The relationship with developers/regeneration stakeholders and influence of T-Factor over the local regeneration plans differs from pilot to pilot. In places such as MIND, Aleksotas and Euston there are stable and close relationships and the project is contributing to the redevelopments in various ways i.e. getting social, inclusion, and environmental priorities higher on local agendas. An important achievement has been reached for Aleksotas, where thanks to T-Factor, temporary uses have been introduced as a specific measure within the Development Plan for the area. In Amsterdam, despite initial challenges and difficulties in engaging actively with site’s owners and developers, there have been important evolutions relating to the contribution of the project to the green agenda of the area and the openness of decision makers to ecological temporary interventions. In Trafaria and Zorrotzaurre, the situation is instead more critical, due to uncertainty around the future of the areas, and situations of more or less explicit tensions and social conflict. In both cases, T-Factor is actively empowering the voice of local communities that would otherwise be barely heard.
We have further strengthened the outreach & dissemination channels/activities:
-presented T-Factor in the context of 24 external events, most at EU/international levels.
-organised 11 events at project level to disseminate results and outputs.
-co-organised 2 clustering events with the Hub-In and Centrinno projects on impact assessment in urban regeneration; co-participated to the World Urban Forum, Katowice Jun'22; co-organised 1 clustering workshop for policy recommendations; co-manage a cross-projects working group on impact assessment.
- organised 4 knowledge exchange webinars on different topics, involving various partners across pilots, T-Labs, meanwhile use practitioners, academics, students, urban planners.
- created several video clips and outputs on temporary uses (see the News page of T-Factor’s website and YouTube channel).
T-Factor had 104 appearances in newspapers, websites/blogs, radio & TV. It was disseminated through 8 publications (4 of them scientific), 5 press releases, 12 blog posts within partners’ & local stakeholders’ websites.
Flexible, Resilient and Adaptive Urban Regeneration. T-Factor is developing temporary use strategies in the context of 6 early stages initiatives of urban regeneration. By developing these strategies in sync with the broader regeneration processes and in close collaboration with developers and key stakeholders, we aim at enhancing a more informed decision-making and a higher resilience and adaptation of the redevelopments in address to emerging needs and opportunities.
Aligning public and private interests towards shared goals of urban development. Across the pilot cities, more than 90 stakeholders are already involved, covering the full spectrum of the quadruple helix. In the next period, we shall work to expand and reinforce such collaborations, leveraging temporary uses to accompany and support pooling of assets and resources around shared goals of urban development.
Beyond vulnerability-making gentrification. All the pilots are focussing on the creation of opportunities for vulnerable groups such as NEETs, unemployed people and local residents. Similarly, they are supporting active contribution of different groups, especially via bottom-up production of cultural contents that promote intercultural dialogue and respect for any form of diversity.
Meanwhile uses as bedrock of lean urban development. Pilot cities such as Bilbao, Kaunas and Milan are showing interest in the possibility of defining or improving regulation around temporary uses, as a way to reactive slack spaces in cities and make them more accessible, especially for grassroots movements and creative communities.
Empowering participation and engagement. We are experimenting with novel forms of participation and engagement in placemaking, developing a variety of activities such as walkscapes, guided tours, festivals, alternative mapping processes to gather perceptions and meanings attributed to the areas and from different publics.
Aligning public and private interests towards shared goals of urban development. Across the pilot cities, more than 90 stakeholders are already involved, covering the full spectrum of the quadruple helix. In the next period, we shall work to expand and reinforce such collaborations, leveraging temporary uses to accompany and support pooling of assets and resources around shared goals of urban development.
Beyond vulnerability-making gentrification. All the pilots are focussing on the creation of opportunities for vulnerable groups such as NEETs, unemployed people and local residents. Similarly, they are supporting active contribution of different groups, especially via bottom-up production of cultural contents that promote intercultural dialogue and respect for any form of diversity.
Meanwhile uses as bedrock of lean urban development. Pilot cities such as Bilbao, Kaunas and Milan are showing interest in the possibility of defining or improving regulation around temporary uses, as a way to reactive slack spaces in cities and make them more accessible, especially for grassroots movements and creative communities.
Empowering participation and engagement. We are experimenting with novel forms of participation and engagement in placemaking, developing a variety of activities such as walkscapes, guided tours, festivals, alternative mapping processes to gather perceptions and meanings attributed to the areas and from different publics.