Abandoned cultural heritage sites – including underused buildings, complexes, heritage spacs and more – hold great potential for the public and private sectors, as well as local communities. If done deliberately, reviving and transforming these sites can be an opportunity to increase community cohesion and social integration, foster bottom-up economic activity, and create local employment.

Heritage reuse policies across Europe can support or hinder this mission.

What regulations are currently in place in Europe regarding heritage reuse? What are the overlaps and differences between reuse policies in various countries? Who are the most relevant actors and decision-makers? What are best heritage reuse practices, and how can European stakeholders learn from them?

The OpenHeritage project has researched these questions, having investigated and mapped adaptive heritage reuse policies in fifteen European countries.

On 22 September at 13:30 CEST, the project is convening actors online to discuss the results in an interactive workshop, known as the 'First OpenHeritage Dialogue.'

An overview of current heritage reuse policies will be presented in the Dialogue, followed by a discussion of results in the context of urban planning, cultural heritage, participation and sustainability issues. European Commission representatives will reflect on current and future actions on this topic in Europe, as well as measures at the EU-level in support of heritage reuse. Together with partners from the CLIC and RURITAGE projects, the Dialogue will also look at regulations from both urban and rural perspectives, and dive deeper into the differences between tangible and intangible heritage.

This Dialogue will be led by inputs from speakers including:

• Hanna Szemzö, Managing Director at the Metropolitan Research Institute, OpenHeritage Coordinator
• Loes Veldpaus, Senior Research Associate at the Newcastle University, Co-lead of the OpenHeritage Collaborative Heritage Lab (Sunderland)
• Simona Tondelli, Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, RURITAGE Coordinator
• Ugo Guarnacci, Policy Advisor at the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), European Commission
• Maciej Hofman, Policy Officer at DG for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission

The Dialogue is a part of the OpenHeritage Dialogue Series which aims to bring relevant stakeholders and multipliers together to discuss key aspects of adaptive heritage policies in Europe, such as stakeholder engagement and governance, or financing and economic sustainability. The series consists of three interactive workshops, each co-organised with one of the project's Cooperative Heritage Labs.

Click here to register to join the conversation.

For more information on the Dialogue series and to view a draft programme, click here.