European cities and regions have a strong cultural heritage preservation tradition that has been primarily sustained by public management and support. However, the limited capacity and funding availability of the public sector has left a large inventory of cultural heritage assets abandoned, vacant and underused – particularly in cities. This, in conjunction with intergenerational and intercultural conflicts, the need to address pressing climate change issues, and a significant decrease in public engagement, has challenged cities/regions and their heritage communities to look for new collaborative approaches, financing methods, and governance models for cultural heritage and urban regeneration that transcend conventional ways and means.
The “Local Action Guide: Collaborative Approaches to Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage” was developed to be a user-friendly instructional guide and tool catalogue for local leaders who would like to learn more about circular approaches to adaptive reuse of cultural heritage and how to implement a Local Action Plan for Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage, a five-element co-creation process that specifically targets and captures the social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits of circular adaptive reuse.
The Guide builds on the experiences from four pilot areas - Pakhuis de Zwijger cultural institution (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the City of Rijeka (Croatia), the City of Salerno (Italy) and Västra Götaland region (Sweden).