Regeneration of our urban environment: rethinking how and where we live

ISOCARP WORLD PLANNING CONGRESS 2024
Special Session - ISOCARP Institute

In this Special Session, we propose to discuss how urban regeneration can be delivered equitably through planning and development systems or how the relative power and capacity of planning, property, and community actors shape outcomes. We want to explore the interplay between policy frameworks, community engagement, technological advancements, and sustainable design principles in driving successful urban regeneration initiatives.

SPEAKERS

UK RETROFIT PROJECT

There is an urgent need to adapt the built environment to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, protect the environment and support more sustainable lifestyles. Retrofitting the built environment means undertaking place-based adaptations to existing morphologies while ensuring that adaptations are delivered equitably and support a ‘just’ transition. Many solutions lie in how places are planned and developed, encompassing city-region infrastructure, such as sustainable urban drainage, local planning interventions, like restricting greenfield development, and community projects such as low traffic neighbourhoods and community asset transfers. The diversity and complexity of urban retrofitting means “city-level” planning-led action (Eames et al., 2013, p. 499) is required to achieve an equitable ‘scaling up’ of policy attention (Carley & Smith, 2013). This must extend beyond a prevailing focus on affluent areas, where land values are high and private investment is already facilitating retrofit, to peripheral locations, where socio-economic conditions are poorer, land is less valuable, and market-led solutions are less profitable and likely to generate significant displacement of existing residents (Goh et al., 2022).

Existing scholarship has tended to focus on discrete urban sustainability interventions and has been less concerned with joining up initiatives across planning and development systems. Theory promulgates various design principles analogous with urban retrofitting and sets out what planning should be doing, such as using land efficiently, prioritising mixed-use, creating walkable streets and achieving symbiosis with nature, etc., but pays less attention to how retrofitting can be delivered equitably through planning and development systems or how the relative power and capacity of planning, property and community actors shapes outcomes. It is this persistently stubborn implementation gap that most urgently needs to be addressed.

Addressing the gap requires multi-scalar solutions that challenge the pro-growth and market-orientated agendas often embedded in neoliberal planning systems (Durrant et al., 2023; Inch, 2021).

The newly awarded UK Retrofit project (ESRC grant) aims to tackle large-scale retrofitting through coordinated efforts between governmental bodies, private sector stakeholders, and local communities in several urban areas in the UK. UK Retrofit notably exemplifies how policy frameworks and financial incentives can drive substantial changes in the built environment, promoting energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions at a city-wide scale.

More information here.

FLANDERS CLIMATE NEIGHBOURHOODS

In the last ten years, the Department of Environment and Spatial Development (DOMG), part of the Flemish Government, has worked on extending its knowledge base on the link between the energy and climate transition and spatial challenges and development. The results of each of these research projects shows us that the energy and climate transition will have a profound effect on our direct living environment and will result in an extensive spatial transformation.

The district level is one of the scale levels where active policy is needed in order to shift up a gear in the degree of transformation through collective interventions. Additionally, this higher scale level allows us to tackle the various challenges our neighbourhoods are confronted with in a more integrated way and to propose sustainable solutions. These challenges and needed transitions include energy, mobility, circularity, health, green-blue infrastructures, social cohesion, housing, etc. The district level is the place where abstract policy objectives descend and can be addressed hands-on, in close cooperation between citizens, market parties and government institutions. It is therefore the place where the policy set out can be given a tangible and readable form. The neighbourhood level is therefore regarded as a crucial link in the intended transition process.

In order to link two long-term ambitions of the Flemish government of (1) the energy transition and (2)  high-quality densification of existing built up areas and test the possibilities within concrete projects, the DOMG together with Team Flemish Government Architect and the Flemish Climate and Energy Agency launched the project call ‘Climate Districts’ in 2020. The aim was to realize renovation projects at building block or neighbourhood level. The projects link various renovation and climate measures. For the purpose of this call we defined ‘climate districts’ as districts initiating a broad-based transition process that transforms the urban fabric to become more sustainable.

By introducing a “learning by doing” process concrete reconversion projects on a neighbourhood scale are supported in their sustainability transition. The projects integrate various renovation, climate and sustainability measures. Three cities (Kortrijk, Mechelen and Leuven) were chosen from the applications for the call for projects. For each of the three districts, a multidisciplinary research team was appointed with expertise in the field of design, energy, participation, real estate and financing and legal knowledge.

When we take the results of the three climate district projects together, we can distil several findings and recommendations. (1) A collective approach should complement individual measures; (2) Customization makes it possible to respond to specific, local needs and urgencies and forms a crucial complement to generic, ‘one size fits all’ measures; (3) To make the transformation of our built-up environment sustainable and robust, we need to develop an integrated, coherent vision and approach, linking opportunities from several policy domains instead of working in silos; (4) Traditional financing logics are giving way to new partnerships, new collective forms of commissioning, and corresponding organizational and financing models; (5) Citizens are no longer seen as passive consumers: their agency is actively used through innovative and far-reaching forms of collective citizen participation; (6) The potentially exclusionary effects of sustainability investments should be countered as much as possible to strive for a just energy transition and (7) With a mission-oriented attitude the government should act as a booster and facilitator to achieve the necessary breakthroughs in making the built environment climate-neutral.

SMALL CITIES OF TOMORROW

Petites Villes de Demain (PVD) is a French urban planning program created out of the realization of devitalization in small cities and the lack of urban policies aimed toward them, despite their importance as living centers to their territories. More than a thousand cities have been selected to be part of it and to be helped with creating and carry out the city’s strategic development plan. The program’s main goal is to improve life quality in these cities while aiming towards a resilient and sustainable urban development, fight depopulation and loss in economic attractivity and adapt to an aging population.

Petites Villes de Demain is, as a program, an innovation on French urban planning policy. Until its creation, most urban policies were considered as “top-down” policies, where PVD has been created as a partnership between the state and the cities, designed to maintain their autonomy and help them create their own revitalizing solutions. Its creation led to organizational and operational innovations: the National Agency for Territories’ Cohesion created new tools to facilitate planning and operational actions for selected cities. Through one-on-one conventions, it finances the project manager tasked with revitalizing the city, as well as strategic studies, while ensuring the respect of the required method and main objectives. It also identifies and diffuses information on innovative urban practices.

By the way it has been created and managed, the program allows and facilitate local innovations: participating cities are encouraged to develop local networks, collaborations and partnerships and to use national and local resources (local assets, associative sector, patrimonial and cultural heritage, …), to build creative ad-hoc solutions. PVD has developed creative partnerships, for example with the Regional Health Agencies to create fundings and support on health-focused city planning, or with the “Patrimony Foundation”, to help maintain and valorize local patrimony.

Petites Villes de Demain has allowed mayors facing a lack of urban planning culture and specialized staff to access trained professionals and develop a long-term perspective on the city’s development. The normalization of long-term planning, creation of action plans and organized urban management has been one of the main objectives and success of the program, as the participation (and fundings) on the program depends on creating and following a master plan. Through this policy as well as through the organization of professional training for project managers and conferences for mayors, Petites Villes de Demain has improved small cities’ technical planning skills.

The program has also helped valorizing local innovations and initiatives through the organization of webinars designed for participating cities. It has facilitated departmental, regional and national meetings, designed to ease good-practice and idea sharing (from revitalization strategies using local patrimony, to case studies on reusing abandoned sites). It has succeeded in creating a network among small cities and towns who felt isolated facing those issues.

Apart from the strategy, skill and networking aspects, PVD has contributed to the improvement of life conditions in those cities. It generalized the opening of “France Services” offices, to compensate the lack of interlocutors on various subjects (tax, legal issues, social security…). It also partly finances and eases the procedures for housing improvement programs, designed to fight vacancy. Through the development of national partnerships, those cities have also been prioritized to host an event designed to attract businesses in vacant city-centers business spaces (“Mon centre-bourg a un incroyable commerce”). Finally, in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot, the program has helped the city develop an inclusive project on an abandoned factory located in its city center. It has partly financed studies, helped build financial partnerships and unlock specific founds for urban renewal and soil pollution.

JAKARTA AFTER IKN: RETROFITTING JAKARTA’S BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Cities are becoming the primary places where people live, more than half of the world’s population has resided in cities, which is expected to rise to 68% by 2050 (UN, 2018). Recently, there has been a growing recognition that urban areas will be more sustainable living places concerning the mobility problem of sprawling and commuting. Metropolis such as Jakarta, Bangkok, and Manila have seen their development patterns leading to urban sprawl, and creating severe traffic congestion as the main contribution for carbon emission of more than 50%. These cities struggle with inefficient urban density which overburdened public services long haul of daily commuting, making living conditions worse for workers. In the future, Jakarta has a unique position on its future, by the middle of 2024 our capital will move to East Kalimantan at Nusantara. Our research is based on the unique situations of Jakarta, such as its rapid urbanization, our work includes developing innovative strategies for urban development such as housing, and public spaces that address the needs of Jakarta’s restorative development.

Relocating the capital to IKN Nusantara City presents Jakarta with a valuable opportunity to tackle its urban development challenges through fresh strategic city planning. This move can enable a comprehensive approach to redesigning Jakarta’s urban spaces, through restorative urbanism, creative land use mix, implementing sustainable actions by redeveloping their residential mix, and open spaces, and focusing on improving its urban mobility. Our research area is promoting urban regeneration in a specific district for its residential area and setting a movement on retrofitting for sustainable urban development in the future to better living conditions, smart density, provide public open space, and reclaim environment quality.

Efforts to reclaim and repurpose urban spaces align with fostering a more efficient urban fabric. By concentrating population densities and activities within the city centers, Jakarta should aim to minimize the environmental footprint associated with suburban expansion. Retrofitting existing public buildings, residential, and commercial buildings, offices, and green areas should be integrated into Jakarta’s urban planning frameworks, and have to represent key strategies in advancing Jakarta’s journey towards a more sustainable and livable urban future.

Our recent research delves into Jakarta’s adaptation of Capital status change to evolving densities and functions, particularly focusing on central government office buildings having potential density reduction and changes of uses. Strategies are needed to transform these areas into mixed-use developments that incorporate residential units, aimed at curbing carbon emissions linked to commuting. By integrating housing in the city center, Jakarta aims to shorten travel distances and encourage sustainable modes of transportation like walking and cycling. Retrofitting these areas revitalizes urban zones and advances Jakarta’s sustainability objectives, fortifying resilience against developmental challenges and climate change impacts. By intertwining environmental restoration with urban renewal efforts, Jakarta aspires to forge a more sustainable and livable city center, emphasizing smart urban density and reducing dependence on private transportation.

At the action level, retrofitting existing buildings, and revitalization with land consolidation of compounds are the keys to updating Jakarta’s urban landscape to meet resilient needs and upgrading standards of safety and efficiency. This is particularly important in a city like Jakarta, rich with heritage buildings that hold significant historical and keep existing carbon at its best. This method not only conserves resources by reducing the need for new construction but also helps maintain the city’s unique character. Those are proven to enhance energy efficiency, better water management, introduce a sustainable lifestyle, and bring well-being for the community.

MODERATOR

The ISOCARP Institute is the research spin-off of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) and specialise in research, citizen engagement, advocacy, research communication and professional trainings in fields related to urban planning.

As a knowledge broker and think tank, we facilitate the cross-border dissemination and the adoption of transdisciplinary knowledge and innovation across sectors, governance levels and communities.

The ISOCARP Institute is a partner in the EU-funded project Regeneration of neighbourhoods towards a low-carbon, inclusive and affordable built environment (REGEN), which aims to decarbonise European neighbourhoods by employing a multifaceted toolbox powered by digital technologies and sustainability assessments.

More information here.

YOANN CLOUET

Executive Project Manager

clouet@isocarp-institute.org

ISOCARP Institute

The Hague | NL

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