• The pilot projects in the neighbourhoods of Otxarkoaga and Txonta have received heads of organisations interested in implementing similar initiatives in two regions of Croatia, two in Spain, three counties in Ireland, and also two in Poland and Greece.
• The Opengela project, which is supported by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, is already being replicated in other Basque municipalities.

The Opengela model of urban regeneration is expanding not only in the rest of the Basque Country but also in different European countries. On Thursday 31 March and Friday 1 April, representatives from seven municipalities and regions visited Bilbao and Eibar to see first-hand the pilot projects being developed in the Otxarkoaga and Txonta neighbourhoods, respectively.

The selection of the regions to replicate the model has been made by Fedarene, the European Federation of Energy and Environment Agencies and Regions, which in turn is one of the partners in the Opengela consortium. housing Europe also assisted in the selection of the regions that visited the project.

These are two regions in Croatia, two more in Spain – Extremadura and Asturias- and also an Irish entity established in three counties, Poland and Greece.

From Croatia, officials have come from two regions: on the one hand, from the county of Medjimurje, which covers three cities and 22 municipalities. There, the regional energy agency MENEA operates as an advisory centre for energy and climate issues and is now in the process of expanding its services to, among other things, integrate a home renovation service collaboratively and ensure financial sustainability.

The other Croatian region present in Euskadi covers the counties of Varazdin, Koprivnica-Krizevci and Virovitica-Podravina. There, the regional energy agency, REA North, has already started to provide consultation and technical guidance related to housing renovation. However, it is looking for ideas to address the financial side and questions on how to establish an innovative citizen-driven one-stop-shop model at the local and regional levels.

There was also a Spanish presence, through representatives from Extremadura and Asturias. Representatives from Extremadura came with AGENEX, an energy agency that has already participated in other European projects such as INNOVATE or HousEEnvest. It is looking for ideas and experiences to address social housing from a perspective in which homeowners are involved, in addition to the search for sustainable financial tools. For its part, Asturias was present through Viviendas del Principado de Asturias-VIPASA, the company that manages the public housing stock of the Principality of Asturias.

The fifth region comes from Ireland. There, the energy agency 3cea is active in the counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, and Wexford and is committed to energy efficiency and renewables. Finally, there were also the presence of the Polish region of Mazovia through the Mazovia Energy Agency, and from Greece via the Thessaloniki social rental agency.

Opengela, until January 2023

The heads of the seven European cities and regions have attended a busy programme in which they have learned about the general lines of the Opengela project, which started in May 2019 and is scheduled to end in January next year. They also visited the two pilot neighbourhoods: Txonta (Eibar) and Otxarkoaga (Bilbao), where work is already progressing on the buildings where the intervention is being carried out. Opengela focuses on the creation of neighbourhood offices that act as a one-stop-shop, where the neighbourhood receives support to tackle the refurbishment of their buildings from a perspective of improving energy efficiency and also with social criteria.

In Otxarkoaga, in Bilbao, work is being carried out on five buildings totalling 16 portals with a total of 240 dwellings. The office is located in the former BBK kindergarten. In the Txonta neighbourhood in Eibar, the pilot project involves work on 221 homes in 17 home owners.

The project has received 1.7 million euros from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and is led by the Basque Government’s Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport. The consortium is joined by eight other partners: the local urban development companies of the two municipalities (Viviendas Municipales de Bilbao and the Gipuzkoa-based Debegesa), the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), as well as three companies: one specialising in financing, GNE Finance; another in European affairs, Zabala; and another in communication, Gabineteseis; together with two European organisations based in Brussels: Fedarene and the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing (Housing Europe).

• In 2021, the progress of the two one-stop shops of the Opengela project is already visible: more than 700 people are participating in the programme, with a reduction of more than 50% in the CO2 emissions of the intervened buildings.

The Opengela project continues to make progress. It started in May 2019, and even though the pandemic slowed down the urban regeneration process in the two pilot neighbourhoods (Otxarkoaga in Bilbao and Txonta in Eibar), by the end of 2021, some outstanding results can already be seen.

This project, which is funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, has set various objectives, both in the refurbishment of buildings and improving energy efficiency. And, in this regard, it is making notable progress.

At this moment, the two neighbourhoods have managed to reduce their CO2 emissions by more than 50% in the buildings where work is being carried out. Thus, in Otxarkoaga an average of 74% has been reduced in the four blocks that are currently being refurbished. According to the samples taken, the Bilbao neighbourhood has managed to reduce the emission of 340 tonnes of CO2 per year. This is possible thanks to the fact that 69,14% of the budget has been allocated to energy efficiency (both active and passive actions).

In the case of Txonta, the reduction in emissions is quantified at an average of 54,09%, with a total reduction of 157 tonnes of CO2 in the projects already executed. If the works currently underway are added, the number rises to 378,70 tonnes of CO2 per year. In the Gipuzkoa neighbourhood, 67,60% of the budget has gone directly to promoting energy efficiency.

3,6 million private investments

Public-private partnerships are fundamental to this progress. In addition to institutional support, the homeowner’s associations must agree to carry out the refurbishment projects. In this sense, private investment is important. By the end of 2021, total of 3,6 million euros had been mobilised between the two neighbourhoods: 825.438 euros in Txonta and 2,83 million in Otxarkoaga, where most of the property is owned to Municipal Housing. In fact, if the investment of the Bilbao public company is added, the investment is increased by a further 3,92 million.

In this sense, the final objective of the project is closed to being achieved, as it reached 4,6 million euros of private investment.

More than 700 people from 22 buildings in both neighbourhoods have already signed up to the project. It is worth highlighting the high degree of agreement among the neighbourhood to carry out the works (90% in Otxarkoaga and 88% in Txonta). This is reflected in concrete improvements. For example, it has already been agreed to replace a third of the carpentry in the buildings being refurbished.

The district offices, both Txonta Opengela and Otxar Opengela, accompany the neihbourhood throughout the refurbishment process. In Eibar, 143 aid applications have been processed for homeowner’s associations and individuals in different typologies. It is worth noting that this neighbourhood, which is considered vulnerable, has increased its registered population by 3,4% since 2018.

In Otxar Opengela more than 600 interactions have been registered last year between the people who manage the office and the neighbourhood, to accompany them in the refurbishment process.

Finally, a dozen homes in both neighbourhoods have expressed interest in taking advantage of Opengela’s specific financing, which offers payment facilities for renovation work.

• A course of the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP), aimed at civil servants and profesional, presents the cases of integral refurbishment in Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar), as well as in Lasarte-Oria and Durango.
• In addition, Ignacio de la Puerta, Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government, explains the different actions that are being carried out in the Basque Country in terms of urban regeneration.
• On the other hand, Gerardo Ruiz, architect and professor of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, presented the great economic and social potential of urban regeneration presents in Basque neighbourhoods.

A training day organised on Tuesday 16 February by the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP) has oriented civil servants and professionals in the Basque Country on the technical and organisational aspects of urban regeneration. In order to make this known, it used the Opengela project, which is developing two pilot projects in Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar).

The aim of the course was to show the regulatory and administrative frameworks in the field of urban regeneration and the scales at which it can be developed, as well as to learn about technical and organisational aspects.

Representatives of two of Opengela’s partners, Bilbao Municipal Housing and Debegesa, have presented the comprehensive refurbishment they are carrying out in Otxarkoaga and Txonta. In the Bilbao neighbourhood, work is being carried out on five buildings which with a total of 16 house numbers and 240 homes. In the case of Txonta, the work is being carried out on 221 homes of 17 house numbers.

For his part, the Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Country, Ignacio de la Puerta, was in charge of presenting the actions being carried out in the Basque Country in urban matters, including Opengela, the project driven by the Basque Government which looks to improve quality of life in cities through urban regeneration.

Gerardo Ruiz Palomeque, professor at the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and who collaborates with the Basque Government in the development of these actions, also participated in the conference. In his lecture, he explained the great economic and social potential of urban regeneration in the Basque neighbourhoods.

In addition to the representatives of Debegesa and Bilbao Municipal Housing, who coordinates the Txonta and Otxarkoaga offices, those responsible for two offices where the Opengela model has begun to be replicated, in the neighbourhoods of Aramotz (Durango) and Basaundi Bailara (Lasarte-Oria), aso participated and explained the actions they are carrying out.

The conference also included the sociologist Aitor Vallejo, founder of the European Research Survey, and the architect Sonia De Gregorio, who spoke about urban regeneration and the gender perspective.