While in Chemnitz special attention was paid to the city's “Gründerzeit” neighborhoods, the problem areas of the partner cities lie in other fields. The old town of Constanţa (Romania) is increasingly decaying because ownership is often unresolved, leaving little room for intervention. In Riga (Latvia), there are also major problems in the historically valuable old quarters. A large number of commercial premises and apartments are vacant in downtown Rybnik (Poland), while the Belgian city of Seraing is characterized by derelict industrial sites of the steel industry and neglected residential quarters of steel workers. Vilafranca del Penedès (Spain) records a high proportion of vacant housing throughout the city, and the Italian city of Turin is feeling the negative effects of FIAT's cessation of production. Many of the former FIAT employees' housing estates are struggling with vacancy. Ideally, the result will be the implementation of an initiative or agency in each city to continuously work for the reactivation of vacant buildings and to improve the housing situation.

It's time to share!

As many cities have the problem of vacant buildings in need of refurbishment, the ALT/BAU Transfer Network shared the results of its joint work over the last two years in an online webinar on 19 April 2021 titled "How to reactivate vacant residential buildings in need of refurbishment". Interested cities and stakeholders in urban planning received an invitation to participate in the online event. Representatives of the individual cities reported on how they have adapted the good practice from Chemnitz in their cities and which methods - proven in practice - are suitable for reactivating vacant and unrenovated buildings.

The presentations on the following topics can be accessed here.

• Introduction to the ALT/BAU network and Chemnitz Good Practice – the ‘Housing agency’
• Inventory and monitoring of vacant buildings with examples from Constanta, Riga and Seraing
• Activating and supporting owners – Methods, experiences, lessons learnt contacting owners and providing useful services with examples from Chemnitz and Seraing
• URBACT - It's time to share - URBACT Transfer Network concept, key outcomes and programme news
• Activating and supporting potential buyers and investors – Chemnitz’s methods, experiences and lessons learnt contacting investors and providing useful services with examples from Chemnitz, Vilafranca and Riga
• Connecting and coordinating public and private stakeholders with examples from Chemnitz and Turin
• The ALT/BAU approach and its importance with regard to the most urgent tasks in the post-COVID recovery of urban areas
• Wrap-up and final information (~5-10 min.)

The video recordings of the individual contributions to the final conference can be found on the ALT/BAU YouTube channel.