Urban Brownfield Regeneration Projects: Complexities and Issues

Because of urban brownfields’ inherent complexity related to their very nature, as well as their intermediate scale—the neighbourhood—regeneration projects are not a spontaneous process. Indeed, an urban brownfield regeneration project may encounter several issues, which can be obstacles, barriers, or resistance, that we classify in four types: sociocultural barriers, governance involved by the multiplication of actors, legal and regulatory constraints, and deterrent costs. While these issues contribute in turn to complexify brownfield regeneration projects, they are not insurmountable. Finally, to overcome urban brownfield regeneration projects’ complexities and issues, we argue that there is a need to implement real project dynamics. To this end, we provide four potential approaches to foster the creative development of tailored solutions.

Ragusa Ibla_S. Paolo neighbourhood: regeneration cultural common

In XX century Italy abandonment is a widespread phenomenon. In the case of S. Paolo – a neighbourhood in the periphery of Ragusa Ibla, a UNESCO site in Sicily -, abandonment is linked to 1) the fragility of its geographical position; 2) the contraction of economic growth; 3) the lack of "modern" urban services. These three factors are interlinked and active as circular causes of the present condition of abandonment of S. Paolo. The paper presents our proposal of intervention working on the three factors together through a two-steps method: first we clarify at different scales the issue (abandonment) and the processes that are producing it; then, we intervene on the three circular and non-linear causes, according to our vision of complexity. Our method also acts on the currently widespread development practices, which could entail the risk of manipulating the identity of a historical place in defining not a collective but only a private space (planning gentrification) and without producing a sustainable project in the long-term spam. We follow a Design Thinkers approach within a Practice of Metropolitan Discipline: every analysis is project oriented and evidence based.

The Journey of Local Knowledge Toward Designing Neighbourhood Regeneration

This research explored design opportunities and new challenges with a paradigm shift toward participatory processes in neighbourhood regeneration. Further, it emphasized the significance of local businesses and their local knowledge to overcome the challenges faced by designers. Three types of local knowledge Handler was established based on the Literature Review: Possessor, Processor, and Implementer. Through content analysis on 30 practical cases, 18 types of Actors in the process of participatory neighbourhood regeneration were identified. Based on these findings, two ways of local businesses’ contributing to neighbourhood regeneration projects were proposed: as a knowledge reservoir, and as a neighbourhood guide. As future studies, the authors suggest 1) understanding the types and forms of local knowledge possessed by local businesses and how to motivate them to share their knowledge; and 2) devising new methods of participation for local businesses that can enhance designers’ capabilities in neighbourhood contexts.

Rap and Political Participation: Using Rap as a Creative Method in Research with Children and Young People

This article explores how rap music workshops can be an effective method when researching neighbourhood regeneration and refurbishment with children and young people, especially in disadvantaged communities. The article draws a research with 78 children and young people in a large social housing estate which is undergoing regeneration and refurbishment in Cork City in the South of Ireland. The focus of this article is on a sub-group of six teenagers who participated in a rap workshop. The research demonstrates that rap music workshops are an insightful data collection method, particularly in contexts where rap music is already an embedded part of the local youth culture. This research also reveals how children and young people have the imaginative capacity to make an informed analysis of their communities and that they hold a strong desire to influence the decision-making process. This article will be of interest to researchers concerned with creative methodologies designed to elicit and understand children’s and young people’s experiences and perspectives.

NEIGHBOURHOOD REGENERATION AT THE GRASSROOTS PARTICIPATION: INCUBATORS’ CO-CREATIVE PROCESS AND SYSTEM

Incubators of Public Spaces is a funded JPI Urban Europe project aiming to support the self-organization of places by enhancing the factors that motivate, encourage, and enable the urban actors to reach common understandings in order to coordinate their actions by reasoned argument, consensus, and cooperation rather than strategic thinking only. By catalyzing citizens’ willingness to ‘do their bit’ for improving spaces, it provides the means to grow and care for places. The paper is organized into three main sections. The first section offers a theoretical underpinning on the roots of self-organization and co-creation in urban interventions. After a brief introduction about the project’s aims, the second section deals with incubators’ co-creative process and system. It describes the running of the scenario workshops and provides an overview of the web platform and its inherent features. The third section presents the results of the application of the incubators method in the regeneration of an Italian neighborhood. It provides some general information about the area, and foresees a set of interventions for both built and open spaces. Conclusions offer early remarks concerning the ongoing experimentation in Incubators.