Opengela organises the webinar ‘Post Covid-19 Urban Regeneration: One-Stop-Shops for a fair, green and social recovery’

What? The webinar will gather speakers from 6 European One-Stop-Shops for Urban Regeneration, and will be moderated by EASME (European Commission)

When? Tuesday May 12 at 11:00 (CET). Maximum 90 minutes.

Registration: You can register HERE.

Agenda:

1.  Short introductory statement from Ignacio de la Puerta, Opengela Coordinator and Director for Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Urban Regeneration, Basque Government.

2.      Debate -moderated by Stephan Renner, EASME– with interventions from the following OSS:

·       Opengela (Basque Region, Spain): Andoni Hidalgo

·       SharingCities (Milan, Italy): Cecilia Hugony

·       EuroPACE (Spain): Davide Cannarozzi

·       RenoBooster (Vienna, Austria): Stephan Hartmann

·       SuperHomes (Ireland): Declan Daly

·       Orfée (France): Françoise Refabert

In order to have a lively debate, there will be no presentations, and discussions will be structured around 3-4 questions. During this debate, the ‘Q&A’ tool will be open for gathering questions from the public.

3.      Finally, we will get to conclusions that will result in a short report gathering the main lessons learnt, and that will be distributed to participants after the meeting.

Context

The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent socio-economic crisis facing the EU are going to impact urban regeneration projects. There are a number of important challenges and opportunities ahead:

On the one hand, the period of confinement has proved that our homes play an essential role in our lives, providing us with shelter, workspace, a place to learn and grow. Spending nearly 100% of our time indoors has taught us the value of community and neighbourhood life. It is critical to rebuild resilient community relationships post Covid-19 and to ensure that all Europeans are living in healthy and comfortable homes.

On the other hand, it is likely that -during the social and economic crisis- investments in home renovations may be de-prioritised by Europeans, seeking to cover immediate expenses. In the meanwhile, local, regional and national public authorities will be forced to divert their investments to fostering employment, saving the economy and ensuring social benefits for the most disadvantaged groups.

How can we face this reality? What kind of narratives can urban regeneration OSS contribute to be seen as one of the keys to a fair, equitable, and green exit from the crisis, leaving no one behind?

The Opengela program (funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No 846707) is undertaking an internal process of reflection to adapt to the post Covid-19 reality. However, we feel that we will have much to gain if we open this process by inviting other renovation programs, One-Stop-Shops to share their experiences across Europe. With that in mind this webinar intends to generate “collective brainstorming» about the impacts of Covid-19, identifying challenges and opportunities faced by our communities.

This is a period of high uncertainty at many levels, and therefore this webinar does not intend to provide clear answers or magic solutions to the challenges we face, but rather to be a thought-provoking and knowledge-sharing experience. 

REGISTER HERE