The CIRCULAR POTENTIALS symposium, which Kreative Räume Wien organized in cooperation with the Vienna Business Agency on the topic of ‘Added value of vacancy activation’ on 14 and 15 June 2023, was a success.
Many thanks to the many participants, cooperation partners, guests on site and in the online stream. You can listen to the keynote speeches and the panel discussion directly here in the article below or in the YouTube playlist. Further information and impressions of the symposium can be found here.
Day 1 – Uli Fries (Creative Spaces Vienna) & Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör (Vienna Business Agency)
Why is the focus this year on added value and circular potentials? This is what Uli Fries (Kreative Räume Wien) explains in his introductory remarks at the start of the symposium. Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör (Vienna Business Agency) traces the history of vacancy activation in Vienna and the creation of Kreative Räume Wien in her opening speech.
Wurst Case – Bremen – Germany
Waking up sleeping houses! The impulse lecture series starts with two pioneers from the field: Oliver Hasemann and Daniel Schnier from ZZZ- ZwischenZeitZentrale Bremen.
The ZwischenZeitZentrale Bremen enables interim uses to open up spaces for art, culture and the creative industries at a low threshold. In the Wurst Case project, a former sausage factory in the Bremen district was activated. The fundamental aim of the ZZZ is to combine the current potential of vacant buildings and brownfield sites with the ideas of Bremen residents. This takes place in an ongoing exchange with owners, users and supporters in politics, administration and civil society.
And at this point, a brief outlook: Over the next two years, Oliver Hasemann and Daniel Schnier will be project managers for the Interim Uses Network project, which will connect interim use agencies across Germany.
Speakers: OIiver Hasemann and Daniel Schnier (ZZZ – ZwischenZeitZentrale Bremen)
www.wurstcase-hemelingen.de
Maltfabrikken – Ebeltoft – Denmark (EN)
Maltfabrikken is Danish for malt factory: today, however, the factory in the small Danish town of Ebeltoft no longer produces malt. After decades of vacancy, it has become a permanent place for art, culture, business and entrepreneurship. Kristian Krog is co-initiator and now director of the project and is responsible for strategy, economics and cooperation.
A little history about Maltfabrikken: The original malt factory was founded in 1861 and produced malt for the Danish and international market. After its closure in 1998, jobs were lost and the small town of Ebeltoft was affected by emigration. The buildings then fell into disrepair and were threatened with demolition for some time.
Instead of building a shopping center, the former malt factory was restored on the initiative of committed citizens and opened as the “Volksfabrik” in 2020. A place for art, culture, business and entrepreneurship. This was achieved not least thanks to the great interest and support of local foundations, entrepreneurs and private supporters, as well as a strong partnership with the municipality of Syddjur. In 2022, the quantitative and qualitative added value of the project for the municipality was assessed in a study.
Speaker: Kristian Krog (Maltfabrikken)
maltfabrikken.dk
CREATIVE CLUSTER – Vienna – Austria (DE)
The CREATIVE CLUSTER sees itself as a curated, interdisciplinary creative incubator and art incubator, as a business location and communication platform for the cultural industry. The pioneering project is self-organized and operated on a non-profit basis. The project from Vienna shows the potential and resources that lie dormant in the city’s own real estate portfolio. The City of Vienna’s school building was vacant for several years and – initiated by Kreative Räume Wien – was revitalized in 2019 with a longer-term interim use. ️
The founder and artistic director of CREATIVE CLUSTER is Karim El Seroui, an architect and freelance visual artist. He founded the association in 2017, which implements numerous cultural projects and runs the project in Margareten.
The keynote speech will be broadcast from the former gym in the CREATIVE CLUSTER.
Speaker: Karim El Seroui (CREATIVE CLUSTER)
www.creativecluster.cc
Viskaļi. Institute of Design for Quality of Life – Riga – Latvia (EN)
Originating from an art project that wanted to draw attention to vacant buildings, Free Riga has been revitalizing abandoned places since 2014. The buildings and areas in Riga are transformed into affordable spaces for artistic expression and collaboration. Free Riga brings together the municipality, space users, the neighborhood and various activists to create access to alternative art and culture in abandoned places in the city.
Zane Ruģēna is Head of Sustainability at Free Riga and project manager for the development of the currently largest Free Riga project: Inspired by the Bauhaus movement and the New European Bauhaus, VISKAĻI offers a framework for countless forms of social innovation in the former Faculty of Aerospace in Riga, Latvia, on an area of around 15,000 m2. The project focuses on co-design, co-creation, the development of tools for social development based on sustainability, integration, placemaking and non-formal education. The concept of ‘Viskaļi. Institute of Design for Quality of Life’ is currently one of the finalists for the New European Bauhaus PRIZE 2023.
Speaker: Zane Ruģēna (Free Riga) EN
www.viskali.lv
Areal Lattich – St. Gallen – Switzerland (DE)
Creative sprawl in the middle of the city? A project in Switzerland shows what can be done with inner-city urban development areas or brownfield sites. The area near the goods station in St. Gallen in Switzerland is an urban development area with a planning phase of around ten years. Since 2016, various interim use formats have been implemented here on the partially derelict site.
Since 2019, a temporary wooden module building at the heart of the site has offered small-scale commercial spaces for the creative industries in an inspiring environment. Other areas provide space for creative growth with garden projects and studios in sea containers and construction trailers as well as events in the general areas. Other projects such as a modular building for micro-apartments and an event hall will complement the interim use in the future.
Speaker: Rolf Geiger (Lattich Association)
lattich.ch
Haus der Statistik – Berlin – Germany (DE/EN)
The keynote speeches that took place as part of the symposium ended with an exciting project: The former administrative building Haus der Statistik with 50,000 m2 in the middle of Berlin is a model project for urban development oriented towards the common good. Even during the planning and construction phase, various pioneering uses are being tested around the existing buildings with a focus on art/culture, education, social affairs and the circular economy.
After more than ten years of vacancy, the site is being developed for the common good – jointly by civil society and the public sector. The so-called Koop5 are jointly responsible for creating space for art, culture, social affairs and education, affordable housing and a new town hall for central and administrative use by renovating the existing buildings and constructing new ones.
Speaker: Jonas Machleidt (Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing in Berlin) and Leona Lynen (ZUsammenKunft Berlin). They are part of “Koop5”: Civil society, politics and administration are working in a cooperative community to develop the Haus der Statistik in Berlin.
houseofstatistics.org
Day 2: KEYNOTE on city parterre. First floor, street, courtyard and their transitions (DE)
What is the urban parterre? The concept of the urban parterre plays a central role in the question of what makes a city worth living in. The city parterre is the urban first floor, the ground-level zone of the city: a fabric of built and undeveloped spaces in which we move and meet every day. While urban research has so far focused either on the first floor zone or the public space, Angelika Psenner looks at the systemic interplay of first floor, inner courtyard, street and their transitional spaces.
How can we use existing buildings in a sustainable, resilient and circular way? What makes Vienna special in terms of mixed use? How has the ground floor zone changed over the last 100 years?
Keynote in the run-up to the panel discussion: Angelika Psenner, Professor of Urban Planning at the Vienna University of Technology
Discussion: POSSIBLE SPACES FOR VIENNA – making creative use of vacancies
What does it take to increase the use of vacant properties in Vienna?
What are current practices and strategies for dealing with vacancies in the city?
What are the challenges and what framework conditions facilitate projects?
Discuss this:
Peter Hörburger (brut wien)
Cornelia Lein (Vienna Business Agency)
Katharina Reményi (WEST)
Lena Rücker (MA 18 Urban Development and Planning)
Moderation: Franziska Zoidl (STANDARD)
READ & SEE MORE: CIRCULAR POTENTIALS symposium
Further information and impressions of the CIRCULAR POTENTIALS symposium here.