Promoting temporary reuse of brownfield sites for triggering urban transformation

Abstract

The last economic crisis imposed structural changes on many former industrial areas, leading public and private stakeholders to reconsider the urgency of issues related to the environmental remediation and requalification of areas. Nevertheless, while the remediation and reuse of industrial brownfield sites present an important opportunity for the improvement of urban quality, sustaining the costs of these operations is currently an economic burden for owners or local authorities. For this reason, temporary uses and temporary activities could be a successful way of finding opportunities in periods of uncertainty and crisis, financial market volatility, deindustrialisation and political change. This paper explores the possibility of pursuing temporary reuse in a specific brownfield site in Italy, where urban redevelopment has been halted for far too long. The main positive effects attributed in the literature to temporary reuse are: economic benefits to the owner, users and the broader urban context; social and economic benefits to the local community; increased democratic participation in urban development; adaptability and innovation in the process of urban change; and low costs of implementation.