WeGenerate is a Horizon Europe funded project that stands for “Co-creating people-centric sustainable neighbourhoods through urban regeneration“. The kick-off meeting is hosted by Fraunhofer-ISE, as project coordinator, in Freiburg (Germany) on November the 28-29th, 2023.
The project ‘WeGenerate’ as signified by its name, seeks to infuse the elements of people and co-creation in the urban regeneration processes. It fully embraces the paradigm shift from building for the people to building with the people. We – cities, citizens, communities, businesses, researchers, and practitioners – take ownership of the urban regeneration processes and co-create together sustainable, people-centric, accessible, and beautiful neighbourhoods.
This project is based on the stories and goals of four neighbourhoods and their communities located in different parts of Europe. Although they are at different stages of development and are facing different urban challenges, but they share the same vision of positive change.
WeGenerate will help them to reinvent themselves and in the process find new values and opportunities. WeGenerate sets out a journey to find the right ingredients and recipes for sustainable and inclusive urban regeneration that can create long-lasting positive impacts within the neighbourhoods and beyond. The process will be highly participatory with close collaboration with the city administrations as well as the citizens, local communities, and businesses. Advanced digital applications (such as Digital Twins, Metaverse and extended reality) will be implemented and experimented to support decision-making and stimulate citizen engagement.
Expertise in Social Science and Humanities is called upon to foster social innovation and participatory actions across the project. In addition to technological and social interventions, the art and cultural dimensions will be drawn on in the co-creation processes.
Four sustainable and people-centric neighbourhoods will be realised by the end of the project, the legacy will be upheld through replication by five Fellow Cities and others, who are inspired by the WeGeneration stories.
The project has a total budget above 8M€ and will run for 4 years. The consortium is formed by 21 European partners including Fraunhofer (leader), IREC, ICLEI Europe and the cities of Tampere (Finland), Cesena (Italy), Cascais (Portugal) and Bucharest (Romani).
IREC is responsible of developing the Impact Assessment Framework as well to support the implementation of Digital Twins in decision-making processes in some of the demo neighbourhoods. This action is carried out by researchers from the Thermal Energy and Building Performance group, including Dr. Jaume Salom (head of the group) and Ivan Luque.
Link to cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101123546
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
