FEEL
Frugal cities through Energy Efficiency and Low-tech communities
Project summary
How can we do more with less resources?
European public authorities have to meet increasing demands, but with less money. Thinking bigger, the problem is also about the overuse of resources, and the commitment of EU Member States to reduce carbon emissions. More is not always better, and we need to create the infrastructures and systems that allow people to live good lives, within the planet’s environmental limits.
The most daring cities see this energy constraint as a tremendous opportunity to reinvent themselves by relying on another vision of the city of tomorrow.
The FRUGAL CITY finds ways to organise neighbourhoods, urban technical systems, buildings and these interactions will be based on two cross-cutting approaches.
SUFFICIENCY. Low tech is at the heart of frugal innovation: it’s about meeting needs in ultra-simple ways. A sufficient technology will meet needs using the least sophisticated and least expensive solutions possible, without altering the quality of the end result. The Eco-design of urban services, infrastructures and buildings is at the heart of this approach.
COOPERATION. Acting individually will not be enough. One way forward is to increase the collective benefit, through cooperation between elected officials, entrepreneurs and citizen.
Project Partners:
What will this project change
FEEL will develop sufficiency and cooperation approaches in 8 European cities and regions. Project-partners will apply the principles of frugality in schemes to renovate older housing, enhance biodiversity, improve services & engage their communities.
They will cooperate over these two challenges:
(1) Developing the frugal approach: ultra-simple solutions, sufficiency and community engagement
(2) Transitioning to the frugal city business model, public acceptance and adoption
Each project-partner will already be moving down this path, but in different ways. Through FEEL they will improve their planning through inter-regional learning and knowledge sharing across Europe.
