September 2021 - Opengela

27/09/202113/08/2026

Opengela at the EU’s Sustainable Energy Week 2021

Opengela will participate on 19 October along with other European projects in the conference ‘Urban Regeneration in Southern Europe: a recovery tool with a high social impact’.
The conference, organised by Housing Europe, will be online and will feature urban regeneration projects from Spain and Italy, including Opengela and AGREE from the Basque Country.
The session is part of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, which will be held in October under the theme ‘Towards 2030: reshaping Europe’s energy system’.

Urban regeneration has -and will continue to have- a central role in European energy policies. And to guide them, it is necessary to draw on success stories, which serve as a guide and as proven experiences for subsequent projects. The EU Sustainable Energy Week 2021 (EUSEW) is being organised this October and Opengela will be part of the programme. It will participate in the conference ‘Urban Regeneration in Southern Europe: a recovery tool with a high social impact’. The event will be held online on 19 October and is organised by Housing Europe (the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing). It aims to bring the multifaceted aspects of urban regeneration to the European landscape, with particular emphasis on the profound social impact that regeneration projects – currently supported by European funds from the Next Generation EU Programme – can have in the Southern European countries where the pandemic has had the most devastating effects. In addition to representatives of Opengela, other European urban regeneration projects from Spain and Italy will be present to demonstrate, through these real and ongoing examples, how holistic interventions focused on the built environment and the transformation of neighbourhoods can catalyse a fair and inclusive energy transition. Two experiences of urban rehabilitation and regeneration in the Basque Country will be presented: Opengela and AGREE, a project led by the Basque Government. The EuroPACE initiative from Catalonia and Regenerate from the Balearic Islands will also be present. Two other projects from Italy will also participate: Sharing Cities and Innovate. Among the participants, Ignacio de la Puerta, Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government and coordinator of the Opengela project, will be a highlight. Other speakers will include Julien Dijol, deputy secretary general of Housing Europe; Adrian Joyce (Renovate Europe), Cecilia Hugony (Teicos Group), Patricia Molina, senior researcher at Tecnalia (on behalf of AGREE); Andoni Hidalgo (representative of Opengela), Sofia Salardi (Mantova City Council, member of Innovate), Mart Jacobs (GNE Finance, member of EuroPACE) and Eugenio Morello, professor of Urban Planning at the Politecnico di Milano. Bottom-up initiatives The conference highlights the need to accompany EU policy strategies and actions with bottom-up initiatives. The aim is to demonstrate that progress is feasible and that transformation can happen in a sustainable way, involving citizens and leaving no one behind. Participating projects will be key to demonstrating this, with a focus on different governance and management solutions, innovative financing solutions and co-creation mechanisms deployed to foster inclusive citizen participation. The event is part of the extended programme of the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2021 (EUSEW) organised by the European Commission, which will be held from 11 to 21 October 2021, as a prelude to the main conference EUSEW 2021, which will take place from 25 to 28 October and has as its main focus the theme ‘Towards 2030: Reshaping Europe’s Energy System’.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 846707.

Otxar Opengela

Address: Avenida Pau Casals, No. 16, Otxarkoaga, Bilbao (In front of Plaza Kepa Enbeita)

Telephone: 946 85 19 32

E-mail: otxaropengela@vvmm.bilbao.eus

Txonta Opengela

Address: Calle Txonta No. 3, ground floor, Eibar

Telephone: 688 77 97 37

E-mail: txontabulegoa@eibar.eus

24/09/202113/08/2026

Otxar Opengela to host a course on the management of rehabilitation and urban regeneration

During November and December, the Bilbao neighbourhood office will become a classroom to prepare professionals in technical and organisational aspects for tackling rehabilitation and urban regeneration projects.
This course is closely linked to the Opengela programme, as its main objective is to provide transversal and holistic training for the members of the technical and proximity management offices that will in the future deal with all the vulnerable neighbourhoods in the Basque Country.
The course has 17 places available, for which public administration professionals and people with a university degree can register before 14 October.

The course ‘Management of rehabilitation and urban regeneration’ organised by the IVAP (Basque Institute of Public Administration) will be held at the Otxar Opengela during November and December. During these two months, comprehensive and integrated training will be offered to public administration professionals and university graduates.

Speakers from the IVAP and EVETU (Basque School of Territorial and Urban Studies) will present the keys to achieving a broad knowledge of the technical and organisational role of professionals in this discipline. The aim is to be able to tackle any work related to the rehabilitation of neighbourhoods, at any scale.

Thus, aspects related to the technical planning of proposals will be addressed, as well as the participation of beneficiaries, management processes and financial viability. All this, under the regulatory and administrative frameworks (European, state, regional, local) and applied to all scales where rehabilitation can be developed (neighbourhood, homogeneous building complex, building or group of them).

Ignacio de la Puerta, director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government; and Gerardo Ruiz Palomeque, professor at the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and expert in rehabilitation and urban regeneration, co-direct this course, which will begin on 2 November in a conference given by both to establish a conceptual framework at European and territorial level.

Professionals from different disciplines, such as law, sociology, architecture, engineering or technical staff, will be responsible for providing students with the knowledge generated by their experiences through a theoretical-practical methodology, where debate and explanations based on real examples will prevail. In this way, the course will cover topics related to urban planning and rehabilitation on a regional and local scale, as well as the technical keys to carry out rehabilitation projects in a comprehensive, interactive and simultaneous manner.

The deadline for registration is 14 October and there are three ways to enrol: on the one hand, Basque Government staff can register by self-registration; on the other, local and regional government staff can register through their training coordinator; and, finally, professionals, graduates and/or graduates should send the completed application form to evetu@ivap.eus.

This course is closely linked to the Opengela programme, as its main objective is to provide transversal and holistic training for the members of the technical and proximity management offices that will in the future attend to all the vulnerable neighbourhoods in the Basque Country.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 846707.

Otxar Opengela

Address: Avenida Pau Casals, No. 16, Otxarkoaga, Bilbao (In front of Plaza Kepa Enbeita)

Telephone: 946 85 19 32

E-mail: otxaropengela@vvmm.bilbao.eus

Txonta Opengela

Address: Calle Txonta No. 3, ground floor, Eibar

Telephone: 688 77 97 37

E-mail: txontabulegoa@eibar.eus

23/09/202113/08/2026

Visit by COAVN Gipuzkoa to Otxarkoaga and Txonta for World Architecture Day

To celebrate World Architecture Day on the first Monday in October, the Gipuzkoa branch of the Official Basque-Navarrese Architects’ Association (COAVN) has drawn up a programme to highlight the importance of building renovation and urban regeneration. As a central event, it has organised a guided visit to the Opengela of Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar), neighbourhood offices that accompany the neighbourhood throughout the process of rehabilitating their buildings.

COAVN Gipuzkoa has invited all its members to take part in this bus trip to Bilbao and Eibar, which will depart from San Sebastian. The first destination will be the Otxarkoaga neighbourhood, where Ignacio de la Puerta, Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government, and Claudia Pennese, COAVN Gipuzkoa’s culture spokesperson, will welcome the participants and explain what the European Opengela project consists of.

After the presentation of the project and an explanation of how the neighbourhood offices work, there will be a guided tour of Otxarkoaga. After lunch, the participants will travel to Eibar, where they will visit the Opengela in Txonta. Participation is completely free, but it is essential to sign up in advance on the COAVN Gipuzkoa website.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 846707.

Otxar Opengela

Address: Avenida Pau Casals, No. 16, Otxarkoaga, Bilbao (In front of Plaza Kepa Enbeita)

Telephone: 946 85 19 32

E-mail: otxaropengela@vvmm.bilbao.eus

Txonta Opengela

Address: Calle Txonta No. 3, ground floor, Eibar

Telephone: 688 77 97 37

E-mail: txontabulegoa@eibar.eus

22/09/202113/08/2026

An integrated home renovation service in your territory

Opengela is a one-stop-shop renovation service in Basque Country, Spain. The project uses an economically viable business model which includes the active engagement of citizens and an innovative financial instrument. This ensures that the renovation service is suitable for vulnerable populations.

After years of development and the running of 6 pilot neighbourhoods, the Opengela model is ready to be replicated not only in the Basque Country but elsewhere in Spain and Europe.

With this call, the project invites 5 regions and cities from across Europe to come to the Basque Country to see how the pilot offices work and bring home what they can replicate from the Opengela model to their territory.

Who? The call is open to European regional or local energy agencies or public authorities who have the willingness to develop an integrated home renovation service and can make an impact on the urban regeneration in the territory.

What? The participants will enjoy a 2-day visit to Basque Country to see how the Opengela model works.

How? Answer the questionnaire by October 31, 2021, with concise and complete information. Only applications in English will be evaluated.

APPLY HERE

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 846707.

Otxar Opengela

Address: Avenida Pau Casals, No. 16, Otxarkoaga, Bilbao (In front of Plaza Kepa Enbeita)

Telephone: 946 85 19 32

E-mail: otxaropengela@vvmm.bilbao.eus

Txonta Opengela

Address: Calle Txonta No. 3, ground floor, Eibar

Telephone: 688 77 97 37

E-mail: txontabulegoa@eibar.eus

20/09/202113/08/2026

Opengela collects in a document best practices shared with other European projects of urban regeneration

Since its launch in 2019, the Opengela urban regeneration project has among its priorities the exchange of information and good practices with other similar experiences that are implementing One-Stop-Shops (OSS) in Europe.

To date, there have been exchanges with four initiatives in three European countries: Tipperary Energy Agency (Ireland), Île-de-France Énergies and Picardie PASS-Amiens (France), Sharing Cities-Milan (Italy) and Renobooster-Vienna (Austria). In addition, Opengela is in close contact with two other initiatives due to their geographical and operational proximity: the AGREE project, led by the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport of the Basque Government, and the INNOVATE project. All this work is included in the document ‘Best practices in Europe: lessons learned’, which details the contacts made and the conclusions reached.

The first visit was made to the Tipperary Energy Agency in Ireland, where Opengela offered its experience as a project in the initial phase of physical OSS, as well as a perspective of local action to complement the example of the Irish agency as a virtual office. Following this first meeting, two other visits were organised to leading projects in Europe, namely in France, regarding the development of district offices: Picardie-PASS and Île-de-France Énergies,

The pandemic that broke out in March 2020 paralysed the visit plans that had been advanced with the two SSOs identified as strategic to complete the European Peer-to-Peer activity: the Sharing Cities project (Milan) and Renobooster (Vienna).

In order to continue contacts, Opengela organised on 12 May 2020 the webinar ‘Post Covid-19 urban regeneration: one-stop-shops for a fair, green and social regeneration’, with the participation of five other international OSS projects: Sharing Cities (Milan, Italy), EuroPACE (Spain), RenoBooster (Vienna, Austria), SuperHomes (Ireland) and Orfée (France).

The event, moderated by representatives of EASME – the European Commission’s Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises – was followed by more than 180 participants from 26 countries and 4 continents, and aimed to foster a collective brainstorming on how to address the situation caused by the Covid-19 crisis in local urban regeneration projects.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 846707.

Otxar Opengela

Address: Avenida Pau Casals, No. 16, Otxarkoaga, Bilbao (In front of Plaza Kepa Enbeita)

Telephone: 946 85 19 32

E-mail: otxaropengela@vvmm.bilbao.eus

Txonta Opengela

Address: Calle Txonta No. 3, ground floor, Eibar

Telephone: 688 77 97 37

E-mail: txontabulegoa@eibar.eus