The SoHoLab project establishes and evaluates LivingLab approaches to understand how residents, housing associations and other intermediaries can be effectively involved in the regeneration of large-scale social housing estates. An international and interdisciplinary partnership between researchers, non-profit organisations, architects, housing professionals and city partners is established in order to do so.
Towards a definition of socially oriented Urban Living Labs: This report aims to contribute to developing customized approaches for setting up, questioning and/or elaborating Urban Living Lab (ULL) approaches in the context of the regeneration of large-scale social estates and, more generally, deprived contexts. The literature review is illustrated with several existing foreign and domestic best practice examples of Living Lab cases in underprivileged areas. It therefore revisits literature on participatory planning, co-design and Urban Living Labs.
The regeneration of large-scale Social Housing estates: The purpose of this report is to investigate the contexts of large-scale social estates in Brussels, Milan and Paris. It does this by providing an overview of the architecture and planning history of social housing within the 3 city regions and by positioning the production of large-scale social estates within this framework. Special attention is given to the last 15 years and the different measures developed for tenant participation and housing regeneration, be it informed by institutional policies, inhabitants initiatives or third sector promoted interventions. Indeed, we try to consider all types of social and spatial interventions that impact on these sites and its inhabitants. By zooming in on several sites within the three cities, these regeneration practices are discussed and critically evaluated in terms of social-spatial quality.
ERA-NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures Call (ENSUF): In the ERA-NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures Call cities and civil society in Europe can address urgent and long-term challenges by co-creating ideas and projects. ENSUFl initiates transnational joint calls for RDI proposals, developing our knowledge of the urban condition and sustainable development through creation and testing of new methods, tools, and technologies required to overcome current economic, social, and environmental challenges. ENSUF is supported by the European Commission and funded under the Horizon 2020 ERA-NET Cofund scheme. The call was opened on 16 December 2015 and in December 2016 15 projects were approved that will start during the beginning of 2017.