Baltic Urban Lab Final Conference on ”Dealing with the Past & Planning for the Future – turning urban brownfields into possibilities” was held 6-7 September 2018 in Riga, Latvia. The Final Conference of Baltic Urban Lab project brought together more than 60 urban planners, soil remediation experts, architects and other interested parties from Latvia, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland to explore the lessons learned from the project and by four piloting cities - Tallinn (Estonia), Turku (Finland), Riga (Latvia) and Norrköping (Sweden). 

Guide launched for integrated and partnership-based planning of brownfields!

Lessons learnt from the Baltic Urban Lab project were shared by Maija Rusanen (UBC Sustainable Cities Commission) and Sandra Oliveira e Costa (Nordregio) who highlighted the need for coordinated and holistic approach to brownfield planning and better cooperation between different actors – across different sectors and experts in local administration as well as between different groups having interest in the development such as citizens, NGOs’, land-owners, current users and future users of the site and developers. Commonly agreed vision and targets among all involved parties is key for successful brownfield revitalization. Baltic Urban Lab launched a guide for urban planners and experts working with brownfield regeneration called “Towards integrated and partnership-based planning of brownfield areas” in five languages: Latvian, Swedish, English, Finnish and Estonian. Download your copy and share it with your colleagues! 

How to make participation matter?

Partnerships and better cooperation between different actors is the key to solve many of the complex challenges in brownfield redevelopment. We still need to work to find the best ways to include different kind of people in planning and make their participation matter. But also to find the most effective ways to create long-lasting partnerships between all stakeholders. European projects such as Baltic Urban Lab offer a great platform to exchange, learn from each other and experiment different ways to make urban planning more open and inclusive. Find more information about the results of the Baltic Urban Lab project www.balticurbanlab.eu 

Join the UBC Urban Planning Webinar 2 - urban planning tools in practice on 25 October 2018 at 10:30-12:00 EET to learn how the guidelines and other tools can be utilised in your city!