• • Zurbaran-Arabella, Osintxu and Mendelu will have neighbourhood offices to boost the regeneration of their respective neighbourhoods.
  • The Basque urban regeneration network continues to grow as projects in Andonaegi (Pasaia), Txarama (Leaburu), Beraun (Errenteria) and Aramotz (Durango) are successfully completed.

The Opengela network of neighbourhood offices, led by the Basque Government’s Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, continues to strengthen its presence in the Basque Country with the opening of new offices in Zurbaran-Arabella (Bilbao), Osintxu (Bergara) and Mendelu (Hondarribia), areas where residential refurbishment and urban regeneration play a strategic role in improving citizens’ quality of life and moving towards more accessible, efficient and socially cohesive neighbourhoods.

In Bilbao, the new ‘opengela’ will operate in two neighbourhoods, Zurbaran and Arabella, located in the district of Uribarri. The office will focus in particular on 134 buildings comprising 1,739 homes considered a priority due to their need for improvements in accessibility and energy efficiency, although the regeneration programme covers a total of 719 buildings and more than 12,000 homes across the district.

The challenging terrain of these neighbourhoods, which affects connections with other parts of the city and makes day-to-day access difficult, makes the neighbourhood office a key tool for bringing technical and administrative support closer to local communities. The aim is to facilitate regeneration processes through a local, ongoing service tailored to the needs of each community.

The ‘opengela’ in Osintxu, Bergara, has also begun its work, and will be driving the renovation of 12 house numbers and 102 homes. This is a neighbourhood that has undergone significant social and urban transformation since the industrialisation of the 20th century, resulting in a highly diverse residential area where newer buildings stand alongside older properties in need of extensive renovation.

To support the project’s development and strengthen ties with the local community, the former Txuringo bar-restaurant has been transformed into the project’s headquarters. Located next to the neighbourhood square, the premises will enable the project to centralise its support for local residents and coordinate the various initiatives linked to the urban regeneration process.

Meanwhile, in Mendelu, Hondarribia, the project is being carried out across various residential areas of the neighbourhood, combining different building types and distinct local contexts. The initiative covers areas such as Mugondo, Planetas, Caseríos, Sauraenea, San Isidro and Eskapatxulo, enabling a comprehensive approach to the local housing stock. The office, located in the Mendelu Enea complex, provides local and ongoing support to residents, working alongside neighbourhood communities on the processes of renovation, improving accessibility and enhancing the energy efficiency of homes.

Offices closed following the completion of refurbishment and regeneration works 

Alongside these new openings, several offices have recently ceased operations following the completion of the renovation and urban regeneration projects for which they were established.

This is the case for the offices in Andonaegi (Pasaia), Txarama (Leaburu), Beraun (Errenteria) and Aramotz (Durango), which are closing following the completion of the support processes for local communities and the successful conclusion of the planned initiatives in each of these areas.

These closures reflect the temporary and community-focused nature of the Opengela model, which is designed to address the specific needs of each neighbourhood during the course of urban regeneration projects, from the initial information and engagement phases through to the execution of the works and the completion of the regeneration processes.

• The dwellings on Txotena Street (three doorways) and Irumineta Street (four doorways) feature 12 m² terraces, thereby increasing their usable space by 30%.

A total of 84 dwellings in the Otxarkoaga neighbourhood of Bilbao have been extended with new terraces as part of the Opengela urban regeneration programme. The project, carried out by Bilbao Municipal Housing, aims to improve the liveability of small flats through innovative refurbishment solutions.

The buildings involved are located on Txotena Street (three doorways) and Irumineta Street (four doorways). The new terraces, measuring approximately 12 square metres, represent an increase of around 30% in the usable space of each flat. This work forms part of the Orain Otxar regeneration project, run by Opengela.

The project has received funding from the European Union through the Next Generation EU funds, as part of the Spanish Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, as well as contributions from the Basque Government and Bilbao City Council.

• It has been included in the Commission Notice C/2025/6438 for its comprehensive neighbourhood and housing support model.

Commission Notice C/2025/6438 from the European Commission, released last December, provides guidance to Member States on how to implement the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and improve the efficiency of the residential building stock. In this context, the Opengela project is mentioned as an example of inspiring practice. It states that ‘the Opengela pilot project in the Basque Country offers neighbourhoods advice and support on the administrative, technical and financial aspects of energy-related issues, but also on other relevant topics, such as accessibility for people with disabilities’.

In addition to the one-stop shop service, the document states that Opengela has developed ‘an online tool with an energy map of all buildings in the Basque Country’, which provides ‘an integrated framework to support the development of renovation plans, complemented by estimates of the financial implications at multiple levels: national, regional, neighbourhood and individual housing’. This tool also makes it possible to ‘detect needs, including the identification of the least efficient buildings’ and serves as a starting point for each building to determine its energy renovation needs.

The European Commission includes this experience in a section on household advisory practices, recognising Opengela as an inspiring model for other European regions seeking to accelerate the energy renovation of their buildings.

Full document here.

Since September 2023, the European BIRTUOSS project has been developing the Opengela model, created in a previous project (HIROSS4all, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme), which delves deeper into social, economic and environmental aspects. It also explores ways to scale up building renovation to urban regeneration in each neighbourhood.

In fact, in recent years, this model, led by the Basque Government’s Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, has grown to be implemented in 25 neighbourhoods in 21 municipalities in the Basque Country and is enabling the improvement of up to 2,800 homes. And, at the same time as the network of offices is being extended to municipalities throughout the autonomous community, BIRTUOSS is developing a “living lab” in TorreUrizar, in Bilbao, which is being used as a pilot site to experiment with the advances of this European project.

This new video, led by journalist Gonzalo Loza, shows the progress of the works in the neighbourhood and in the homes, as well as the value of the one-stop shop for the neighbourhood. It also features testimonials from a TorreUrizar resident; the head of the neighbourhood’s one-stop shop, Marina Hornazabal; Bilbao City Council’s Councillor for Housing, Yolanda Díez; and the Basque Government’s Director of Neighbourhood Regeneration and Urban Agenda, Ana Telleria.

Together with the Basque Government, the EU-funded project is being promoted by a public-private consortium made up of the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), Bilbao Municipal Housing (VVMM), the Environment (Aclima), Construction (Build:Inn) and Knowledge and Technology (GAIA) clusters, the CAVIAR research group at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), EDE Fundazioa, Ciclica cooperative (specialising in decarbonisation strategies), as well as companies with expertise in financing (GNE Finance), communication (Gabineteseis) and European affairs (Zabala Innovation), and also two European bodies such as Fedarene (European Federation of Agencies and Regions for Energy and Environment) and the Spanish Green Building Council (GBCe).