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INTERREG III B Project
ADHOC

Adapted Development of Historical Old Towns in Central and Eastern Europe

Project Idea

The historic city centres of Europe are facing a broad variety of developments that they have to adapt to. This includes on the one hand a changed demographic situation – more and more citizens are getting older and thus have different needs concerning accessibility of buildings and parts of the city. Especially in historic surroundings this creates conflicts. On the other hand the financial means of cities are more than ever restricted. Renovation and modernisation often require considerable investment but also the compliance of heritage protection regulations. Conflicts between administrations, owners, investors, monument conservators and other stakeholders are a topic that has to be dealt with.
For this reason the ADHOC project has been created to overcome existing conflicts and to enable common strategic actions for a sustainable development.

Within the project the partners will develop and exchange innovative solutions and implement exemplary measures in public-private cooperations.

Aims and Activities

Goal of the project is the development and implementation of innovative approaches for a sustainable renewal of historical old towns with numerous listed buildings.

ADHOC concentrates on urbanistic and integrative solutions for an adapted development of valuable inner city districts under changed structural, demographic and economic conditions. This will be reached by fostering local dialogue processes between local administrations, property owners, investors, monument conservators and other relevant stakeholders.
In addition, models of public-private cooperations will be elaborated, promoted and exemplary implemented.

The results of the project are expected to

• improve the living and working quality in historical old towns
• prevent negative future development by increasing the transnational know-how and experience transfer on sustainable renewal of historical old towns in the new and old EU-Member-State, as well as Non-Member-States
• increase investments in historical old towns by demonstrating good examples and disseminating public-private financing models
• reduce the exclusion of people with limited mobility by developing and disseminating solutions for an increased accessibility of historical old towns
• increase the awareness in science and politics for common problems of cities with large-scale historical old towns and the further adjustment of national and European funding policies by delivering information on challenges and transferable solutions.

Work Packages

Besides a work package reserved for project management at Lead Partner level there are four thematic work packages, defined to produce concrete output:

WP1: Local activities in the participating cities: Aim of this WP is the elaboration of feasible strategic concepts and concrete investment projects in different partner cities. The results will be discussed at large by all partners and transferred to concrete pilot projects.

WP2: Transnational exchange of experiences on applicable methods and innovative solutions and

WP3: Thematic web-based documentation and information platform In order to ensure a fluent dialogue between partners a documentation and information platform will be set up, providing all necessary information and creating a space for experience exchange. In addition partners will meet for workshops and direct discussions, which will be valuable for the overall network that has to be established for this topic.

WP4: Scientific monitoring on good practices and transferable results
Comparing Europe-wide good practice analysis will help to work out specific fields of action for single partner cities of the network. This will be done by the Polish-German Research Association ADHOC EEIG, a scientific institution made up of the Universities of Wroclaw and Kaiserslautern. The results will be compiled to a manual "Adapted Development of Historical Old Towns", highlighting typical problem constellations, effective methods and innovative solutions.

Partner

• Austria
  • City of St. Pölten
• Croatia
  • City of Varaždin
• Germany
  • City of Bamberg
  • City of Bautzen
  • City of Ravensburg
  • City of Zittau
  • German Association for Housing, Urban and Spatial Development
  • Saxon State Ministry of the Interior
• Poland
  • City of Jelenia Góra
  • City of Płock
  • Polish-German Research Association ADHOC EEIG/EZIG
• Slovakia
  • City of Trnava
• Slovenia
  • City of Ptuj

The Interreg III B programme is part-financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) covering the period 2000 – 2006. Strand B of the Interreg initiative supports transnational co-operation to enhance a more balanced and sustainable development of the European territory.