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The living lab in Eindhoven is an approach, a way of thinking and working that emerged in the city of Eindhoven and is materialized in various places in the city. The municipality of Eindhoven took the initiative to develop various living lab initiatives, in collaboration with actors from other sectors (private sector institutions, public organizations, academic and knowledge institutions in a triple helix framework). This resulted in a type of living lab that differs from other labs: it is not a laboratory within a building and it does not have clear hierarchical structure and projects organized and presented in a clear policy document. The living lab is however an entire part of the city’s strategy that is developed, supported and implemented at political and administrative level. It fits in a line of thinking and working in Eindhoven that started decades ago, and in which technological innovation are linked to and combined with collaborative forms of working, citizen engagement and citizen centred developments.

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The circular economy is a regenerative model designed to keep products and materials at their highest value and functionality for as long as possible through continuous cycles of reclamation and remanufacture. It is an alternative to the current “linear” economic model based on extraction, manufacture and disposal of resources (i.e. take, make, use and dispose), creating waste and toxic flows at each stage of the process. The webinar will introduce the principles of the circular economy and showcase what local governments are doing to encourage more circular systems and projects within their cities. Participants will also recieve recommendations on what they can do within their workplaces to adopt more circular economy practices.

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With increasing urbanisation, we are becoming more disconnected from nature just at the moment where nature needs us to notice it most: The Living Planet Index is down 60% since 1970!
Humans are reliant on the goods and services that nature provides, from bee-assisted crop pollination to water filtration courtesy of mollusks - and not forgetting over three trillion trees which clean carbon dioxide out of the air and produce the oxygen we need to breathe. Over exploitation, climate change, and pollution have significantly reduced our once-rich habitats – and due to intricate food webs, the fate of a single population can have far-reaching and unexpected consequences. How do historic city centres support biodiversity and habitat protection, reinforce natural processes and connect with their local natural environments? This webinar will take a look at case studies and recommendations from different cultural heritage sites on how biodiversity has been incorporated to add both natural and cultural value.

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Policy-makers and investors are in a prime position to secure the future vibrancy and diversity of arts and culture by locking it into a model of sustainable enterprise, from ethical governance to low-carbon infrastructure, ensuring that the sector is connected to the economy of the future and resilient to environmental challenges. This webinar will demonstrate the role of cultural professionals in contributing to sustainable development in cities and how cultural policy – both organisational and local government – can drive environmental leadership. Participants will learn from case studies across the world on how cultural policy is being used to create sustainable and resilient urban environments and support local cultural infrastructure to respond to climate and environmental change.

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To make sure urban development in cultural heritage and other areas is inclusive and brings social change, cities’ administrations must improve the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society, confronting barriers that prevent participation and meeting communities’ needs. Allowing for bottom up ideas in the participation process is a step towards more socially inclusive planning, especially if these ideas are taken into consideration in decision making.
ROCK cities are testing new approaches to working with communities in a way that is “sensitive, supportive, inquiring and carefully analytical, challenging but not directive or patronizing” (Kennedy, 1996). The final aim is to enhance the capacity of community organisations to influence the decisions that concern them, bringing a more equitable outcome to the process. This webinar will present some of the approaches tested at local level.

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In recent years, culture-led regeneration has gained popularity as a means of reversing urban decline by re-branding cities. Culture is used as a development strategy in many European cities, especially those where de-industrialisation hit harder. Culture can also become a means to attract capital, to improve the image of the city, and to promote unity and cooperation. Without necessarily building flagship cultural venues, cities are betting on culture and use it to re-brand themselves. This webinar will discuss well-known examples of cities using culture for urban regeneration purposes and examine some of the consequences of culture-led urban regeneration.

Green Heritage Futures is a podcast exploring cultural heritage and climate change.

As part of ROCK, Project Manager Lucy Latham sits down each month with a figure working at the intersection of cultural heritage and climate change to explore their projects and perspectives. The series looks at the importance of protecting cultural heritage in the face of climate change, as well as the unique opportunities of cultural heritage in engaging citizens and driving environmental solutions

Episodes

1. David Harkin, Climate Change Scientist at Historic Environment Scotland: What historic sites can tell us about climate change

2. Miranda Massie, Founder and Director of the Climate Museum: The unique power of museums in the fight against climate change

3. Henry McGhie, founder of Curating Tomorrow: Curating a Sustainable Future

The podcast '90 Seconds of Science' is one of the most important Science Communication channels in Portugal, featuring over 500 episodes. Recently, they interviewed Chiara Pussetti from ICSUL team about the ROCK project and the processes of urban regeneration in Marvila. The podcast is available here (in Portuguese).

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ROCK stands for Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities. This European funded project focuses on historic city centres as extraordinary laboratories to demonstrate how Cultural Heritage can be a powerful engine of regeneration, sustainable development and economic growth for the whole city. ROCK believes that cultural heritage should not be static, a vestige of the past only to be preserved, but can be a driving force to bring a new creative energy to cities. Using the past can help build urban futures. The project relies on a "circular model" as an integrated vision of urban regeneration. This circular model is based on 6 connected pillars: creative, cultural, regeneration, knowledge, security and green circles that interconnect to draw the future of cities.

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The International Conference “Urban Centers: Acting Upon or with Cities”, organised by the ROCK team at the ICS-ULisboa, aimed to explore the current roles and functions of a sample of the most important Urban Centers in Europe. For this, the Urban Centers of Lisbon, Bologna, Turin, Barcelona, Paris and Rome were invited to share knowledge about their experience in promoting participatory approaches with citizens in urban policymaking. You can now watch the conference video and read the final memorandum.

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European Capital of Innovation 2018 award - Athens' video Athens was awarded by the European Commission the title of European Capital of Innovation 2018 at the Web Summit that took place on the 6th of November 2018 in Lisbon. The award – that beyond the title includes a €1 million prize- comes as recognition of the city’s success in deploying innovation to overcome the recent economic and social crisis and engaging citizens in this process. ROCK project was an integral part of this award and here is the video of the nomination.

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The ROCK project supported the publication of the book The East Side of Lisbon. Cultural Guide, presented on 4 July in the space Gate 67 (Beato, Lisbon). The event was attended by th e Councillor of Culture, Catarina Vaz Pinto and the president of the Parish of Beato, Silvino Correia. The guide grew out of an idea that won Lisbon's Participatory Budget, submitted with the aim of valuing and disseminating the heritage and cultural dynamics of the axis between Santa Apolónia and Parque das Nações. Crossing the territory of four Lisbon parishes - São Vicente, Penha de França, Beato and Marvila - the guide shows a zone in deep change, where a new centrality is expected to emerge.

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ROCK backs “Projecto Relâmpago” of Superior Technical Institute of University of Lisbon. During the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Lisbon ROCK team hosted and gave its support as a partner to this year’s “Projecto Relâmpago” (Project Lightning), an initiative of NucleAR - the architecture students’ group of IST (Superior Technical Institute of University of Lisbon). Similarly to a hackathon, this was an opportunity to gather over 150 students of architecture to reflect on and make proposals for the riverside area of the parishes of Beato and Marvila. This initiative encourages work in situ, away from the conventional classroom, and promotes a greater involvement with the place and the local community, a goal that the ROCK project shares with this academic action.

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In the framework of Bologna Estate 2019 the Rock Project has brought 4 months of sociality, culture and sustainability into the heart of the city.

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Five squares to enhance public space, cultural heritage and its accessibility

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The video describes the structure, functionality and operation of the ROCK interoperable platform in terms of collecting, sharing and analysing data recorded by ROCK tools as well as open data made available by partners and cities.

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ROCK invites you to ROCK Green Streams – a free series of inspiring talks and presentations on how cities reduce the environmental impact of cultural events, streamed during the coronavirus pandemic. As a business-critical issue, environmental sustainability must be accounted for in all decision-making. This first episode of ROCK Green Streams focuses on good environmental governance. In this first episode, the training module looks at the drivers for green governance as they apply to cultural events – and how event organisers can put the procedures, policies and practices in place so that sustainable events can run smoothly. Cities are sharing their own practices: Liverpool developed Green guidance for local cultural institutions as part of their environmental agenda; and Nantes Métropole initiated the REEVE network of sustainable events, now an association amplifying actions beyond the scope of Nantes Métropole's support services.

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ROCK invites you to ROCK Green Streams – a free series of inspiring talks and presentations on how cities reduce the environmental impact of cultural events, streamed during the coronavirus pandemic. City cultural events are uniquely placed to bring people together from all groups in society. They span a diversity of activities and disciplines and provide cities with an opportunity to showcase and celebrate their cultural heritage and present-day achievements. Despite the potential social, cultural and economic benefits of city cultural events, they inevitably come with an environmental cost, which needs to be considered fully at all stages of event design and management in order to minimise it as much as possible. To kick start the discussion, this episode welcomes Dirk Holemans, Belgian publicist, coordinator of the social-ecological think tank Oikos, Co-President of Green European Foundation and former politician. Dirk explores why cities are drivers of positive changes in Europe and how the cultural sector is key but so far underestimated in the climate policy. The training module runs through the key environmental impact areas of cultural events, and where to start in managing and reducing them. Best practices can already be found in some cities, and we are joined by Bologna and Leeuwarden (TBC) who take us through some of the initiatives they have been putting in place lately.

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ROCK invites you to ROCK Green Streams – a free series of inspiring talks and presentations on how cities reduce the environmental impact of cultural events, streamed during the coronavirus pandemic. Communicating sustainability isn’t always easy – but there are some key philosophies that will help you to be clear, transparent and accountable with your messaging. In this episode, Lucy Latham (Julie’s Bicycle) covers some of them. Creative Carbon Scotland in Edinburgh and the Climate Journey in Malaga have been upfront in better communicating around sustainable cultural events and sustainability in general, and guests Catriona Patterson and Jesus Iglesias share some of their tricks and tips.

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As part of the ROCK project, Vilnius has a unique opportunity to measure how the emotional state of citizens and city guests changes in various circumstances. The research conducted by the Vilnius ROCK team demonstrates that there is a strong need to raise the mood of the population by reducing boredom, and there is excitement. Events, fairs, lights, music, and communication are particularly raising the mood. And in times of crisis, they must take place in a very creative way and not just in cyberspace, and there are also necessary and safe gatherings in the city.

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ROCK joined the session ‘Re-Inventing Heritage for Sustainable Urban Regeneration’, which took place on 2 October as part of Mannheim2020 – the 9th European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns, organised by ICLEI Europe and the City of Mannheim. The City of Turin, one of ROCK Role Models, presented their views on the relevance of heritage, culture and creativity for the sustainable development of the entire city, specifically looking at the examples of adaptive heritage reuse initiatives co-developed together with local community groups.

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Torino Urban Lab tells about its +3 years in the ROCK community. Would you like to know more on how Urban Lab, a city agency based in Torino, interpreted its role in the ROCK project? What was its understanding of cultural heritage? How did it build on data, maps and storytelling to enable a multi-level local debate on the urban transformation process? Check out this video where Chiara Lucchini, regional development manager at Torino Urban Lab, draws a picture of the many steps and lessons learned collaborating with the ROCK partnership.