Economia creativa per il riuso e la valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale in mutamento. 10 laboratori aperti per 10 città storiche dell’Emilia-Romagna

In the last few years, Cultural Heritage has gradually moved from being an inactive and onerous inheritance to a driving force for new regenerative processes capable of catalysing sustainable development in the historic city, supported by an economy focused on culture and creativity. This is the perspective of the EU-funded project implemented by the Emilia-Romagna Region under the POR-FESR 2014-2020 Programme. To enhance the cultural attractions of urban identity while increasing the inclusiveness and participation, this programme faces the challenge of the use of heritage. The idea is to set up 10 living labs, located inside 10 historic buildings, abandoned or underused, by transforming them into creative and cultural hubs, which not only put the building back into use but innervate their activity inside the historic city. The 10 buildings are set in the consolidated fabric of as many cities in the region: revived, the goods are transformed first into architectural restoration sites then into sites of ideas to rethink the urban space with the support of ICT and the collaboration of citizens, local stakeholders, universities and public administration. In relation to the context outlined, the paper aims to read the phenomenon of reuse linked to the living labs under the lens of restoration at different scales – from the identification of artefacts to technical solutions adopted for functional recovery, from the choice of tools of technological innovation to the first experiments of unconventional use. The objective is to verify the role of the creative economy in the processes of change of the architectural and urban structure and estimate the actual contribution to the construction of an identity of the dynamic city, still rooted in the memory of places.