Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ROCK (Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities)

Teaser

Historic city centres are facing processes of gentrification, deterioration, loss of population and jobs, all over Europe, as the effects of the globalisation and massive tourism. ROCK focuses on historic city centres as extraordinary laboratories to demonstrate how Cultural...

Summary

Historic city centres are facing processes of gentrification, deterioration, loss of population and jobs, all over Europe, as the effects of the globalisation and massive tourism. ROCK focuses on historic city centres as extraordinary laboratories to demonstrate how Cultural Heritage (CH) can be a unique and powerful engine of regeneration, sustainable development and economic growth for the whole city. ROCK aims to support the transformation of historic city centres afflicted by physical decay, social conflicts and poor life quality into Creative and Sustainable Districts through shared generation of new sustainable environmental, social, economic processes. Therefore, ROCK contributes greatly to a more sustainable society, with higher social cohesion and liveable centres.
Overall objectives of ROCK, are:
- To develop a shared multi-cultural, multi-heritage and multi-stakeholders city vision, which integrates heritage-led regeneration, sustainable economic development, city promotion and knowledge sharing.
- To develop and apply an innovative circular system approach to connect different actors, places of CH value and systems, at a European level as well as at local level.
- To facilitate the innovation process and the adoption of environmentally and socially sound solutions to achieve sustainable growth.

Work performed

During the first 18 months, the Consortium worked to test and progressively improve the research-action approach. ROCK’s experimental nature is connected to different aspects:
- the co-designed CH-led processes and their implications at local and international scale, combining the different issues deriving from ROCK cities,
- the collection of Data from sensors and different sources in compliance with the new GDPR regulation,
- the development of digital environments to collect information and support the matching between demand and offers between cultural institutions, CCIs and service/products providers,
- the governance schemes to manage unconventional partnerships able to act as agents of change in the historic contexts, enlarging the ecosystem of stakeholders, creating at the same time an EU-wide community of innovators (www.innovatorsinculturalheritage.eu)
It is possible to group the ROCK project work into two main phases:
1. Knowledge building: a process started at the beginning of the project, with a series of interrelated activities carried out by the multidisciplinary partnership of ROCK and large groups of stakeholders, integrating different domains of knowledge and collecting CH-led regeneration experiences worldwide. The first objective has been the creation of a knowledge-exchange process between cities, facing the differences among the 10 ROCK cities, in terms of size, socio-economic contexts, processes, strategies, understanding the replication potential of the most effective initiatives in other contexts.
2. Preparing the implementation phase in cities: it included a list of common actions, which benefit from the results of the knowledge building. The preparation was based on a multiscale and tranvsersal approach, addressing issues such as the conceptual and methodological framework for the implementation, definition of transversal KPIs to be achieved during the experimentation, identification of governance and business models to support the implementation, definition of the methodological approach for the Circular Urban System application.

Final results

The expected results until the end of the project include the following:
- A number of concrete actions tested and analysed in real environment according to Adaptive Reuse Guidelines both in Replicator and Role Cities.
- The deployment of a network of sensors in cities able to increase knowledge on different themes (accessibility, climatic sustainability, citizens’ inclusion/behaviours/perception on changes) and levels.
- A multifunctional Platform, with three main tools: 1) A Database of best practices (ROCKME) investigated also with financial schemes and a stakeholders-based analysis. 2) An Interoperable Platform where data can be stored and accessed by different typologies of users. 3) An Atlas of ROCK Actions at European Level.
- Strengthening the interaction between two levels: a) Specific and local: both Replicator and Role Cities are implementing concrete actions in their own environment, enhancing social inclusion, knowledge and value creation; b) General and EU-wide: analysis of concrete practices according to KPIs and benchmark values; increasing of citizens’ critical mass and participation in public life through the development of useful problem-addressed innovations.
- Stressing the interdependences between human-made, cultural and social capital in heritage-led regeneration, to activate circular processes in close connection with city’s creative (start-ups and entrepreneurs) and knowledge (Universities) environment, to stimulate synergies and improve the resilience and security of the historic downtowns.
- Fostering a bottom-up approach to network with citizens and economic actors (such as companies, start-ups, professionals) with creation of a truly dynamic local ecosystem (through Living Labs), open to innovation and ready to deal with different ways to access and CH experience. Activation of Creative Circle.

The impact of ROCK project can be identified in different domains of innovation: organizational, technological and social.

From the perspective of organizational innovation, the project:
- Defines new mentoring strategies beyond the idea of replication with the co-creation of knowledge among cities and overcoming the distinction between role model and replicator cities
- Develops new governance models and financial schemes for historic cities with the definition of new methodologies, new guidelines for adaptive reuse and new city branding models,
- Promotes a new approach to green oriented city growth.
- Involves new players in the market to boost economic equality and opportunity.

From the perspective of social innovation, the project:
- Enhances participation and social inclusion through co-design, co-construction and co-production approaches, impacting local societies in understanding the complexity of urban spaces, the potentialities given by networking among different stakeholders, the potentialities given by material and immaterial CH with the Creation of Community of Practices.
- Enhances local Identity to improve social capital, empowering communities and enabling social cohesion, also turning to a more diverse workforce in the regeneration process of the historic city.

From the perspective of technological innovation, the project:
- Deploys new technologies for CH access and safety perception with the ability, for different users, to access useful information through open data.
- Uses integrated assessment methods and tools. The combination of the different tools in each city promote an unconventional multi-layered analysis, giving the possibilities to assessing e.g. people flows with microclimatic conditions, with pollution and noise levels.
- Increases climate and environmental awareness to favour communities’ preparedness to mitigation and adaptation initiatives.

Website & more info

More info: https://rockproject.eu/.