7. INSIGHTS
Belgium 🇧🇪
The focus group sicussed the C project in Brussels that used adaptive resue to engage local residents, artisans, and experts to foster a sense of ownership and inclusion. Initial financing was sourced from a combination of EU grants, local government funds, and private partnerships. To ensure sustainability, revenue is generated through renting out spaces for events and workshops, as well as establishing a social incubator for circular economy startups.
However, the project faced several challenges. Bureaucratic hurdles made negotiations with local authorities complex, and local businesses were initially hesitant about how the project could benefit them. Through workshops and community events, businesses gradually became more engaged. There were also concerns from residents about potential gentrification, which required deep engagement with local youth and NGOs to build trust. Aligning the property owner’s financial goals with the project’s community-driven vision also took time, but common ground was ultimately found by demonstrating the long-term value of a socially engaged hub.
A financing model involving community investment, where residents have a financial stake in the project, further enhanced its long-term viability. Job creation and social inclusion is at the heart of such a project, ensuring benefits for the local community while maintaining financial resilience. Sustainability would be a core principle, incorporating renewable energy and circular economy practices.
Many similar projects found success through a mix of public and private funding, corporate sponsorships, and revenue from renting spaces for events and cultural initiatives. A key takeaway was the importance of hybrid spaces that integrate cultural, social, and entrepreneurial activities while respecting the historical significance of the buildings. Ensuring permanent and affordable areas for NGOs and community-driven initiatives would be a priority.
Bulgaria 🇧🇬
The focus group gathered key figures from various cultural and urban revitalization projects across Bulgaria. Each initiative focuses on repurposing historical or industrial spaces into cultural, artistic, or educational centers. However, participants share common challenges, primarily related to ownership disputes, ideological tensions, governance issues, and bureaucratic hurdles. The role of NGOs as mediators, along with local community involvement, is crucial in ensuring project success and legitimacy.
Sustainability is another major concern, with diverse funding models being explored, including private investment, state and municipal support, European programs, corporate sponsorships, and crowdfunding. Successful examples include mixed financing approaches, integration with European initiatives like the European Capital of Culture, and business-oriented strategies such as event organization and rental income. Focusgroup participants emphasize the importance of securing both institutional backing and community support to make these projects viable and impactful.
Cyprus 🇨🇾
The focus groups identified several challenges related to interactions with local government, businesses, communities, and property owners. Engaging with the local government often involves bureaucratic delays, complex regulations, and inconsistent policies, making project implementation difficult. Participants suggested that streamlining application processes, digital services, and providing clearer guidelines would improve these interactions.
Collaboration with local businesses is crucial, yet supply chain delays and coordination challenges has also poved to hinder progress. Establishing partnerships among businesses was proposed as a solution to address common concerns and streamline project execution.
Engagement with local communities is vital for fostering inclusion and mutual support, but it is often complicated by opposition, miscommunication, and rural isolation. To enhance relations, participants recommended increasing transparency and adopting culturally sensitive approaches.
Working with property owners also presents difficulties, particularly due to differing visions, budget constraints, and misunderstandings. To overcome these challenges it is important to have clear contracts, detailed project scopes, and open communication to aligne expectations.
Project funding and sustainability were highlighted as crucial aspects of project implementation. Ensuring financial sustainability requires diversifying funding sources, implementing cost-efficient design practices, and maintaining transparent financial planning. NGOs rely on public grants, private donations, and sponsorships.
Germany 🇩🇪
The focus group identified several challenges and opportunities related to working with local governments, businesses, communities, and property owners in heritage projects.
Local governments often impose strict regulations on heritage conservation, building codes, and public safety, which can conflict with the creative vision of projects. Securing funding from local or regional governments is slow and complicated, as authorities may prioritize economic and infrastructural projects over cultural initiatives. However, engaging government stakeholders early in the process and aligning projects with national funding programs, such as Germany’s Just Transition Fund, has resulted in stronger support.
Businesses prioritize profit, making it difficult to secure long-term investment in heritage projects that do not promise immediate financial returns. Some projects, such as the photography museum conversion in Berlin, faced backlash for being overly commercial. Successful collaborations can be achieved through hybrid models, offering co-working spaces, event venues, or incentives like tax reductions for businesses that contribute to community initiatives.
Community involvement is crucial, but many projects struggle with distrust and concerns about gentrification. In the Nudelfabrik Zeitz project, local skepticism arose because facilitators came from outside the area. Similar concerns were observed in St. Petersburg, where redeveloped heritage spaces became too expensive for locals. To build trust, projects should engage communities from the start, hold workshops, and incorporate local initiatives, as seen in the Mechelen Monastery conversion and Feuerwache Weimar.
Property owners prioritize financial gain over community-based initiatives. For instance, the Nudelfabrik Zeitz project’s initial vision was altered when the owner realized they could attract higher-paying tenants. To counteract this, partnerships between local governments and private owners, or cooperative ownership models where the community collectively owns the building, can ensure long-term cultural use.
Sustainability remains a major concern, as many projects rely on temporary government or European grants. Unstable public funding and limited private investment create financial instability. To address this, projects should diversify their funding sources through crowdfunding, local business partnerships, and revenue-generating activities like hosting events and renting spaces.
Aligning projects with governmental and EU strategies can also enhance funding opportunities. Maintaining strong relationships with local authorities and framing projects as beneficial for economic development and tourism can improve their chances of receiving legislative backing. Innovative financial models, such as social enterprises and shared economy models, offer further potential for long-term stability.
Italy 🇮🇹
The focus group, consisting of representatives from nine regenerated cultural spaces in Sicily and Lazio, identified several key challenges and findings.
Cultural projects in small villages, struggle with gaining recognition and acceptance from local communities. Residents often resist changes to their routines and do not understand the cultural offerings. Some projects have attempted to bridge this gap by using ‘local ambassadors’ to mediate and encourage participation. However, engaging locals is time-consuming and can create tensions when cultural operators unintentionally impose external values. In Palermo, the main challenge is measuring and communicating the impact of cultural activities, including potential negative effects like gentrification.
There is also lack of effective support from local administrations. While public officials endorse cultural initiatives, they do not provide assistance ndue to a lack of understanding of the projects’ goal. Additionally, they fail to translate successful cultural reuse practices into coherent policies. A key example is the ‘Pacts of Collaboration’ in Palermo, which, despite being legally approved, have not been implemented effectively. This ongoing frustration has led some organizations to bypass local government and operate independently.
Cultural operators struggle with managing responsibilities within their teams. Project leaders take on excessive workloads, making delegation difficult and threatening the sustainability of initiatives. Ensuring proper task distribution and long-term continuity is a major concern.
Financial sustainability remains a significant challenge. Most projects rely on public funding, crowdfunding (such as the “5×1000” tax donation), and income-generating activities. However, funding remains inconsistent, and participants believe more efficient fund allocation could improve resource management.
Participants generally distrust local government support but proposed three main strategies for imporvement:
- Engaging administrations to increase awareness of cultural projects’ impact.
- Advocating for better implementation of existing policies and legal frameworks.
- Prioritizing private initiatives and reducing reliance on public funding.
Spain 🇪🇸
The focus group gathered representatives from diverse professional backgrounds, such as cultural policymakers, heritage mediators, designers, programmers of cultural activities, and academics.
A major challenge identified was the complex interplay of interests among local stakeholders, often resulting in conflicting visions for heritage sites. This, coupled with bureaucratic hurdles and unclear regulatory responsibilities, leads to significant delays in project execution. Public institutions struggle with navigating regulations from different levels of government, resulting in stagnation or abandonment of potential projects. Issues related to private ownership further complicate adaptive reuse efforts. Many heritage sites are privately owned, and owners often lack incentives to invest in restoration, especially when financial benefits are uncertain. In cases where ownership is divided among multiple stakeholders, conflicting priorities make consensus difficult and hinder progress.
Financial constraints were acknowledged as another significant barrier, though the group noted that funding from the EU and national programs is available for both restoration and cultural initiatives. However, concerns were raised about the long-term sustainability of these funding sources, as many struggle beyond initial investments.
Another key challenge was ensuring community engagement. While public involvement is increasingly recognized as essential, the focus group highlighted the difficulty of balancing community input with broader strategic goals. Moreover, underrepresented communities often show limited interest in participation, making inclusive engagement strategies crucial.
The discussion also highlighted potential strategies to improve the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage sites. One proposal was the establishment of an interdepartmental task force to enhance coordination between local and regional authorities, streamlining administrative processes and reducing bureaucratic delays. Encouraging private investment through incentives such as tax breaks, grants, and business opportunities was also seen as a approach to motivating property owners to invest in restoration efforts.
Another critical opportunity lies in tailoring the projects to local community interests. A successful example cited was an Arabic Cinema Festival organized at the Artillery Barracks in Murcia, a neighborhood with a high immigrant population. This event effectively engaged residents who had previously shown little interest in cultural activities. Such community-centered initiatives, supported by communication campaigns and social media outreach, can significantly boost public engagement and awareness.