In Copenhagen an attempt was made to combine eco-technology with urban renewal. It focused on the conversion of Øksnehallen, a former market-hall in the run-down district of Vesterbro, where, out of a population of 45,000, almost half live on benefits. The building became a Centre for Urban Eco-Technology, featuring demonstrations of recycling processes and eco-building as well as a training and employment project. Further job opportunities emerged for locals as Øksnehallen became a catalyst for the future development of the market area.
In Porto in Portugal the programme funded the regeneration of Bairo da Se, one of the city’s most historic and deprived districts.
The main objective was to revitalize the area physically and economically, while remaining sensitive to its heritage and local culture. The renovation of buildings, landscaping and lighting Creative Urban Transformations 99
improvements are linked to a series of economic and social measures, such as special services for the elderly and the young and the promotion of commercial, tourist and cultural activities.
Management of the area is being rethought, with a coordination and information centre promoting direct links with residents – a new departure in that context. Porto’s designation as a World Heritage Site both helped the project and was helped by it.
Another focus was urban competitiveness. The English town of Stoke saw the establishment of the Centre for Ceramic Design, known as the Hothouse and located in an old school. Building on the city’s tradition in ceramics manufacturing, this vibrant new design quarter stimulates links between the cultural industries, the museums and the traditional ceramics industry. Venice, by contrast, needed to move from traditional, declining industries into new, sustainable, employment-generating economic activities, and set out to achieve this through the creation of a Marine Technology Service Centre. The conversion of 16,000 square metres of the old Arsenal into a scientific and technological regional park includes not only this complex, but also a research centre for new materials, restoration and the environment.
In Rotterdam, the aim of the Inner Cities Programme was to encourage a ‘social return’ to the Kop van Zuid Area, to be trig-gered by an economic regeneration programme. Local employment opportunities were improved through training schemes, as well as by the creation of neighbourhood services companies, such as those involved in cleaning and upgrading the shopping centre. In addi-tion, district teams to maintain and supervise housing and improve street safety were set up to enhance the area’s image and attract people in.
The Neunkirchen project in Germany demonstrates how ecological and cultural considerations can stimulate job creation, local identity and sustainability. A former iron foundry which was reclaimed and refurbished is today a symbol of the city’s social history; the old riding hall within its purlieus is now a cultural centre, while another building houses the museum’s archives, as part of a wider commitment to document the industrial history of both city and region, and thus ensure that memory is not erased.
The environmental improvements in the industrial wasteland resulted in a changed and decontaminated landscape. A new infra-structure has been set up to attract companies, which are then located in the natural setting created by using the waste left by the coal and other industries.
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Whereas both phases were directed at improving the material environment by integrated methods, in the second UPP tranche
‘softer’ issues, such as community participation, training and employment measures and social inclusion, came strongly to the fore. In addition the potential of culture as a catalyst for renewal, and the positive role of information technology in urban regenera-tion, were more widely recognized. In Huddersfield, Helsinki, Randers in Denmark and Friedrichshain in Berlin, culture was used as a regenerative trigger, especially to create more inclusive urban strategies to deal with the problems of a multi-cultural society.
Helsinki’s Lasipalatsi (The Glass Palace) – a media centre project – combines the twin themes of culture and technology in its programme to make the Internet and digital media a socially inclu-sive experience. Telephone kiosks, for example, where the visitor is faced with a screen, a web camera and a microphone, offer a digital version of Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, enabling people to broadcast what they want to anyone in the world prepared to watch or listen on the Internet. Another kiosk allows passers-by to create their own web page for $3. It was necessary to create new management structures, and for most of the projects new and experimental forms of partnership have been set up.
At European Union level there is no urban policy as such, but the Framework for Action proposed in Vienna in late 1998 was influenced by the UPP experience, and urban issues, as a result, moved higher up the agenda of member states. The lessons and thinking of UPP have been incorporated into the Union’s funding support mechanism and, on a larger scale, into URBAN, a succes-sor programme, which has been allocated an $800 million budget for 2001–2006.
Weighing up
On the credit side, the public recognition by an organization of the European Union’s standing of the value of innovation, and the deci-sion to fund it, gave legitimacy and credibility to imaginative urban initiatives. The tangible gesture of acknowledging risk taking and making exceptions to the normal funding regimes sent out a signif-icant signal to local authorities in Europe, giving many their first direct link to the Union’s bureaucracy – the Commission – as well as the increased status that went with it. The influence of UPP was greater in smaller urban contexts (where projects were more visible), than, say, in national capitals. The involvement of political decision-makers further heightened the impact.
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Another notable feature, especially in the second tranche, was collective learning. Making the 26 projects aware of themselves as a special group by twice-yearly meetings and by the production of a website, newsletters and one to one exchanges has fostered an esprit de corps and a sense of their having embarked together on a pioneering journey. Should questions arise that nobody can answer, there is the consciousness that a support group exists within the network. Even the experienced have learnt from simpler projects, taught by the need to define and communicate their own knowl-edge. Know-how acquired by Randers, while integrating multi-cultural groups in its project known as ‘The Wonder’, was transferred to a similar project in Friedrichhain, Berlin, and there was a two-way exchange of lessons between Leicester’s eco-initia-tive and Turin’s ‘Living not Leaving’ project.
Validating holistic programmes which linked different regener-ation strategies, ranging from the communal to the commercial, together with the emphasis on partnership, bore fruit in countries such as Greece, Portugal or Spain as interdisciplinary approaches were at that time uncommon and therefore harder to put into effect.
The pressure to complete time-dated programmes influenced management and usually accelerated the innovation process.
Further positive features included the emphasis on forward plan-ning, with an exit strategy established from the outset, as well as the need to align projects with other longer-term policies and embed the ideas into a network of local institutions, thereby ensuring that projects would survive local political change.
Lastly and most importantly, schemes were pushed through that would otherwise have evolved more slowly, if at all. The Creative Town Initiative is one example, ‘The Wonder’ project to upgrade the Undervaerket marketplace at Randers, with, as its key factor, the encouragement of multi-cultural businesses, is another.
On the negative side, the whole process was far too slow.
Second round applications for funds had to be submitted in April 1996 and the winners were not announced until July 1997. Later revisions to bids were not allowed, but circumstances change, and the refusal to recognize this was unrealistic. In consequence, amendments had to be made while projects were in progress, and this in turn caused bureaucratic chaos and interminable delays. As someone noted: ‘A decision can take a year, there is an incredible process of dotting the Is and crossing the Ts.’ In the meantime those responsible for the projects had to make commitments, sign contracts and make payments. The lucky ones were helped over the 102 The Dynamics of Urban Creativity
acute cash flow crises by their councils, but this was not always possible for NGOs.
Furthermore, although the projects were innovative, reporting procedures were as bureaucratic as for mainstream programmes.
Monthly reports, covering in minute detail every category and item of income and expenditure (all of which had to be related to the then changing exchange rate for the euro), were the norm. This chore took an inordinate amount of administrative time.
One has to ask whether an institution such as the European Commission is capable of fostering partnerships, interaction and mutual learning. Its structures tend to be rigid and its personnel not renowned for imagination. Such an institution is not quick-footed, has little experience of animating and lacks the necessary celebratory spirit that fosters inventiveness. The innovative nature of UPP did not seem to influence the inner workings of the institu-tion itself, even though Commission members saw creative projects on the ground which affected them at a personal level. There was a tendency to shy away from risks even within a programme about innovation. There was, for instance, an unspoken rule that there had to be a balance of projects from the different member states, even though this might militate against creativity (conversely, of course, that criterion spread opportunity more widely).
‘Implementability’ was a key criterion that eliminated a number of the 503 bids in advance – those, for example, where land owner-ship or management issues were unclear, since timing was important, despite the Commission’s own tardiness in decision-making. Traditional as well as bureaucratic in its thinking, it chose the organizational structures that it recognized, and few initiatives focusing on fresh organizational forms got through, apart from public–private partnerships – common today in most contexts and certainly no longer novel. There was a preference for tried and tested experiments, such as ‘integrated renewal’, which in Germany and The Netherlands had been current practice for 15 years. The rules governing funding had a restricting effect on the range of projects found acceptable (housing and health were excluded).
There was also a bias towards building-based initiatives and away from the more innovative schemes which today focus on empower-ing, networking or skills enhancement processes. Despite the fact that a three-year completion period was too short, renewal of the material environment was always the Commission’s first choice, as it offers a visible proof of intervention.
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Further details on the Urban Pilot Projects Programme are available from the Technical Assistance Office at ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd, 13b Avenue de Tervueren, 1040 Brussels, Belgium (Fax: +32 2 732 71 11 E-mail: [email protected]).
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