Unlearning Real Estate Development: The Community-Driven Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Spaces in the OpenHeritage Project

Abstract

The reconceptualization of the meaning of heritage, changing practices of adaptive heritage reuse, as well as a novel understanding of urban development have contributed to reassessing the role of civic initiatives, especially in dynamically changing urban environments. This has led to the emergence of pioneering practices in urban and periurban ecosystems, conceiving new forms of social infrastructure through a process of unlearning the original function of buildings, and unlearning professions in favour of more interdisciplinary, experimental approaches. Taking this emerging logic of adaptive reuse as a point of departure, this article explores a couple of initiatives that have repurposed vacant heritage spaces for community use with different forms of public involvement. It relies on the work carried out by the Horizon 2020 research project OpenHeritage that explored best practices in policy, governance, funding and management for the adaptive reuse of heritage in Europe. The article presents some findings of this investigation into adaptive reuse initiatives that, embedded in their local environments, experiment with new forms of community engagement, address social, environmental and heritage challenges and employ novel, non-speculative financing mechanisms.