The overall aim of this research is to investigate urban reuse as a strategy for the renewal of city spaces. Rethinking the city, reusing what exists regarding artefacts and green areas, rehabilitating industrial heritage and urban voids, represent contemporary answers to the requests of more sustainable cities. Temporary uses, in particular, develop new meanings and increases attention to these sites, promoting cultural, social and economic activities, encouraging small practices able to produce positive changes in the short period. Also, they can have long-lasting results if they succeed in achieving consensus by citizens and institutions. The research follows an interdisciplinary approach that aims at integrating sociological, political and economic competences. It explores through the analysis of specific case studies at an international level in the urban context of Rome and Berlin how these reuse practices, based on the involvement of different actors and the implementation of small-scale interventions, can be successful in transforming public spaces into catalysts of new processes of urban regeneration. To this end, it will consider in a comparative perspective, benefits and barriers of heritage reuse, ranging from tangible economic and environmental benefits to less tangible benefits, such as place identity and social cohesion.
In short, the project aims to: 1. analyze potentials and challenges of temporary reuse and governance; 2. explore the socio-cultural, economic and physical aspects of the selected urban reuse projects; 3. evaluate the costs and benefits of the different experiences; 4. verify the broader impacts of these processes on a number of possible outcomes, including the relationship between citizens and institutions. The final goal of the research is to give a contribution to the political debate about the role of temporary uses in urban regeneration processes, extending the inclusion of these practices within urban policies and planning.
