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New CENTRalities in INdustrial areas as engines for inNOvation and urban transformation

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CENTRINNO (New CENTRalities in INdustrial areas as engines for inNOvation and urban transformation)

Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-02-28

During the second half of the 20th century, many European industrial areas lost manufacturing activity and fell into decay due to globalisation. Nowadays, complex challenges such as climate change or Covid-19 pandemic, demand new sustainable productive models that increase the resilience of European society and its local communities. Industrial heritage areas, nowadays disappearing, are a strategic asset for the future of manufacturing. Their mixticity of land-uses and old and new stakeholders offers a great potential to experiment alternative models for productive and vibrant neighborhoods. In this context, CENTRINNO aims to develop and demonstrate strategies, approaches, and solutions for the regeneration of these areas as sustainable manufacturing hubs that hold true to ecological challenges, boost a diverse and inclusive creative economy, and use heritage as a catalyst for innovation and inclusion. Artisans, vocationally trained professionals, entrepreneurs, makers, SMEs, or Fab Labs are key players in cities' supply of local goods and the reactivation of local economies. CENTRINNO brings to the fore complex histories, and available resources, such as materials, skills, or human capital in 9 cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Blönduós, Copenhagen, Geneva, Milan, Paris, Tallinn and Zagreb. Cities’ experimentation will lead to the deployment of Fab City Hubs (FCH), productive and creative activators for a more sustainable and inclusive urban economy.
During its first 18 months, CENTRINNO has produced and submitted 19 deliverables, developed 179 local activities and was involved in 92 events. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, many activities have been carried out in hybrid or online mode, affecting the original project plans, especially in pilot cities. Nevertheless, thanks to risk mitigation strategies and the effort of pilot partners, the project has been able to make valuable progress during this time.
After the pre-financing payment was successfully transferred to all partners, the key management documents were developed: the Project Management Handbook, the Quality Assurance and Risk Management Plan, the Initial Data Management Plan, the Ethics Requirements and the Communication and Dissemination Plan. The Coordination Team deployed the main infrastructure for internal collaboration, including an online sharing platform and calls system, and the project mailing lists. The Dissemination Team developed the key assets for external dissemination: the project website, social media channels, the project reference presentation, logo and brand identities, writing and presentation templates, as well as project email signatures, video-call backgrounds, a UX/UI Guide for additional platform integration, and an official project video. The CENTRINNO Whitepaper was developed to summarize the main ideas and objectives of the project in an easy-to-communicate way.
During the first 18 months, a Grant Agreement amendment (AMD-869595-3) entered formally into force and the ICI beneficiary participation was terminated. Its grant and responsibilities were redistributed towards HI and ITC partners. During this period several coordination spaces were implemented, including 5 Steering Committee meetings, 16 Programme Board meetings, 23 Pilot Coordination meetings, 8 Dissemination meetings, 10 infrastructure alignment meetings, one online kick-off meeting (MS1), one online and one offline (Amsterdam) consortium meetings. A collaborative environment supported continuous communication flow between all partners, as well as a close communication between the Coordination team and the Project Officers. Two reports on Cumulative Expenditure and the First Management Report were submitted.
In this period, the first (out of three) pilot activities sprint was carried out. To support pilots, the Pilot Coordination Team organised a series of online knowledge sharing sessions and three resources were developed: the Pilot Coordination Framework, including pilots Action Plans, the Urban Resources Mapping Guidebook, including the holistic mapping methodology, and the Creative and Productive Hubs Journal, a review of the evolution of creative and productive hubs in Europe, portraying 15 hubs, 7 of which were disseminated through online events (FCH voices) or internal seminars. Before the sprint started, three co-creation workshops were carried out to co-develop the CENTRINNO Framework (MS2), which was finally submitted in M12 (MS3). Despite Covid-19 restrictions, during the first sprint the 9 pilot cities developed 179 activities, organised in missions, connected to local challenges (raise awareness on local manufacturing, reskill the local workforce with a circular approach, etc.) and productive activities (permaculture, woodwork, textiles, plastic recycling, etc.). 22486 people were reached, 2565 of which in physical events and workshops. Pilots were supported by the Pilot Coordination Team in mapping activities, heritage-related workshops, educational activities, or local network building. During the first sprint, a workshop on impact for pilots was held and the Pilot Dashboard, a tool to facilitate data flow and knowledge exchange between cities, was tested. All activities were documented and reflected upon in the Collective Results - Sprint 1 deliverable (MS4). Many were also disseminated through the project’s website (20 blog posts), one newsletter, and 250 social media appearances.
During the first 18 months, a working group with Hub-In and T-Factor sister projects produced an Action Plan including a manifesto and a set of common activities. A first clustering workshop was led by CENTRINNO and its findings documented in a blog post. A joint online webinar on Impact Assessment will be held in March 2022. Between the end of the last sprint and M18, the Alpha version of three key resources was developed: the FCH Toolkit, the Cartography and the Living Archive (MS5). These, together with the Impact Assessment Framework (due in M19), the updated pilot Action Plans, and a second round of knowledge exchange sessions, prepare the ground for the second pilot sprint.
At the end of the project each pilot city will implement its own Fab City Hub, showcasing different approaches to this new community activation space to co-develop new products, jobs, or services for a more sustainable and fair urban economy. FCHs aim to positively impact local societies by changing organisations, companies and citizens’ behavior and perception towards industrial heritage sites. They will illustrate how a new local economy that leverages on industrial heritage creates opportunities for excluded groups and individuals to integrate in society, or how new ways to reuse and recycle existing resources, considered waste today, could contribute to a more sustainable economy. Most importantly, FCHs will be the vehicle for CENTRINNO to build an alternative, inclusive, and sustainable approach for historic industrial sites regeneration. CENTRINNO iteratively develops tools and resources to replicate, adjust, or scale up the project approach in other cities, including the Pilot Dashboard, the FCH Toolkit, the Cartography, the Living Archive, the CENTRINNO Handbook, or the Blueprints and Policy Development Guidelines. The project works closely with the Fab City Network, already influencing projects such as Villa Buonaccorsi (Potenza Picena, Italy), and the new headquarters of Fab Foundation in Boston (USA).
CENTRINNO connects training and innovation with local needs and. Photo: IAAC/FabLab Barcelona
Cultural landscapes become new and inclusive hubs of entrepreneurship. Photo: IAAC/FabLab Barcelona