IMPETUS Interregional Policy Brockerage event in Lille

On January 31 and February 1, the Lille Metropole will welcome its European partners of the IMPETUS project for the 1st Interregional Policy Brokerage Event. The gathering represents the first operational meeting in 2024 for the project, which started in March last year, and will be attended by regional and local authorities from six nations: Italy, Spain, France, Latvia, Poland and Romania. 

IMPETUS aims to transform the way cities and regions design policies to support a sustainable and just transition for European cities, focusing specifically on the role of temporary uses for abandoned or underused spaces. Following the Interregional Thematic Seminar in Riga last November, the project partners are exchanging insights and practices from their respective cities and regions regarding strategies and alternatives for regulating temporary uses. 

In Lille, the discussion will focus on the most relevant features of the selected good practices, to understand their transfer potential and, thus, their possible transfer in other regions and cities. The meeting will include plenary sessions with keynote speeches by international experts on the topics of 'Collaboration with the private sector' and 'Greening, biodiversity and urban wilderness', working groups and study visits. 

‘Through its urban renewal program, the European Metropolis of Lille is pursuing a proactive policy of requalifying old neighborhoods and industrial wastelands in the municipalities on its territory. In this context, temporary uses become a lever when the destination of vacant space is uncertain or a source of dysfunction, creating new social dynamics and prefiguring new uses. This seminar, held in Lille, is an opportunity to exchange views with the main partners and operators in transitional urban planning in the metropolitan area, and to visit emblematic sites, such as the transitional development of Place Jacques Févbrier in Lille with SPLA La Fabrique des Quartiers, follow the experimental rehabilitation of a 1930s house, discover the conversion of an industrial building into a cultural facility, La Condition Publique in Roubaix, which has a metropolitan impact, and finally share the experience of the Ferme Urbaine du Trichon, a project to reclaim an industrial wasteland, co-constructed with local associations.’ explains Béatrice URO, Project Director for Social and Urban Cohesion.

The Métropole Européenne de Lille is engaged in the project with a distinct goal of enhancing the integrated metropolitan strategy for urban renewal of districts. This initiative seeks to achieve territorial equilibrium and establish a unified, collaborative vision for the future of areas targeted for regeneration under the French "National Programme for Urban Regeneration". This urban renewal strategy is set to transform 14 districts through an ambitious programme to improve the living environment and attract residents by focusing on using vacant space to create high-quality public areas for the immediate benefit of the community.