IMPETUS

Temporary uses can be key to stimulate more flexible and agile approaches to integrated sustainable urban development strategies and projects and new ways to build cities around shared value and long-term impact, as proved by the strategic adoption of meanwhile uses in many urban regeneration projects of the last decades. Moreover, Covid-19 has amplified the visibility of pre-existing urban voids and emptying spaces that were already on their path towards new uses and meanings. Across Europe, many sustainable urban development strategies might risk losing sights of what uses and functions might be emerging in a post pandemic scenario. Temporary uses offer the opportunity to address many urban pressing challenges simultaneously, and thus they can be seen as catalysts of social, economic, and environmental benefits in the post pandemic city.
The overall objective of the project is to generate a policy change in the design and implementation of integrated sustainable urban development strategies by cities and regions, by adding new layers to promote and regulate temporary uses. This objective will be achieved through policy learning and capacity building activities on how to embed temporary uses in integrated sustainable urban development strategies and will result in the uptake of good practices encouraging new forms of urban governance, stimulating inclusive and accessible services and infrastructure for all, including most vulnerable groups, fostering co-creation and co-design in cooperation with inhabitants, civil society networks, community organisations and SMEs, ensuring the cooperation of all societal actors to tackle complex urban challenges, enabling endogenous urban transformation through a place-based approach. The partnership brings together local and regional authorities, their associations and development agencies, with a balanced mix between more and less developed regions from countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Romania and Latvia.