“It takes courage, creativity, innovation, and cross-sector exchange at all levels to revitalize dilapidated inner-city properties or the more frequently encountered vacant buildings. In addition to the tasks for addressing vacancies that are anchored in the municipalities, this also requires extraordinary civic engagement and creativity to create livable places in Thuringia,” said Thuringia’s Infrastructure Minister Susanna Karawanskij.
In addition to representatives from local and state government, consultants and civil society representatives were invited to participate in future-oriented workshops, working together on case studies from Sömmerda, Erfurt-Stotternheim, Arnstadt, Suhl, Saalfeld, and Apolda. These workshops highlighted the diverse ways in which vacant properties can manifest. At the same time, new ideas and future steps were identified. This collaborative process made the potential for co-production in urban development and the revitalization of vacant properties tangible.
Line Bernstein from the association Quartiere für Alle eV said: “The transfer event, as an innovative and creative process proposal for dealing with vacancy, has shown that project initiatives and administrative actors can be valuable partners to each other in solving crises.”
“The joint preparation process for the transfer event and the future workshop as an experimental format made co-production visible and tangible. In this way, we were able to make a further contribution to public-benefit-oriented real estate development and to jointly search for sustainable and future-proof solutions,” said Katrin Hitziggrad of the LeerGut agents.
The fact that vacant spaces offer great opportunities and can represent added value for Thuringian cities and regions was also demonstrated by the venues in the Open Factory in the Egon Eiermann Building and in the Kulturfabrik (Culture Factory). These buildings, formerly used as textile factories, now offer ample space for exhibitions and work for the creative scene and the general public.
In preparation for the event, the members of the Thuringian action alliance “Inner cities with a future” were also involved, as the topics of the transfer event also strongly affect the networking work of the alliance, in particular the corresponding working group (WG) “Managing vacancies”, which is led by the LeerGut agents.
All results from the event were shared with and evaluated by the working group on addressing vacant properties in order to identify specific needs and measures. The working group discussed the results the following day at the Werkbank Weimar, which represents another Thuringian example of community-oriented real estate development.
The experimental approach, implemented through the transfer events, represents an important component of the working group's work. In the long term, the insights gained will be developed into a guideline for addressing vacancy issues, which will provide a practical and tangible overview of the current challenges and solutions faced by Thuringian municipalities and civil society.
The format of the transfer event was already carried out for the 3rd time this year and represents the further development of the previous, constructive exchange of experience between the Free State and the Thuringian municipalities within the framework of the urban redevelopment conferences and the urban redevelopment tour of the TMIL.
The aim of this experimental series of events is to intensify the culture of dialogue between different stakeholders relevant to the city center.
The attached photo may be used for reporting purposes. Source: Thomas Müller
