Historic city centres are labs for regeneration
ROCK: Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities, brings together 32 partners from 13 countries. Our focus is to support historic city centres to become labs that demonstrate the role for cultural heritage as a unique and powerful engine of regeneration, sustainable development, and economic growth for the whole city. We will test different technology interventions to find effective approaches that can be replicated and scaled.
Which cities?
We will incubate activity in three ‘replicator cities’: Bologna (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal), and Skopje (Macedonia) based on the learning from successful heritage-led regeneration projects in seven ‘role model’ cities: Athens (Greece), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Liverpool (UK), Turin (Italy) and Vilnius (Lithuania).
Our role
As part of ROCK, Julie’s Bicycle is working on specific policy initiatives at the intersection between environmental sustainability and cultural heritage in Bologna, Lisbon, and Skopje.

Resources

Podcast: Green Heritage Futures
A podcast series speaking to figures working at the intersection of cultural heritage and climate change, about their projects and perspectives.

Collaborative Regeneration Webinar Programme
A webinar series sharing case studies and insights from leading cultural heritage projects driving sustainable urban regeneration across Europe.

ROCK Green Streams
A series of talks and presentations on how cities reduce the environmental impact of cultural events.

Discussing cultural heritage in times of climate crisis
A blog post exploring the different dimensions of cultural heritage in the fight against climate change, explaining why we’re talking about cultural heritage in times of climate crisis.

Mobilising cultural heritage for climate action
Sharing insights from leading figures at the Climate Heritage Network launch on Oct 2019, including a keynote by Julie’s Bicycle founder and CEO Alison Tickell.

Roadmap to Green Culture
A framework and checklist for embedding environmental action within cities’ cultural sectors.

Reflections and Future Pathways
Sharing learnings from the programme and looking ahead to future connections between cultural heritage and environmental sustainability.
Factsheets and guides
Sustainable Event Guidance
Focused on developing both environmental knowledge, as well as best practices, and include the key steps for both environmental governance and operations for events in cultural heritage city centres.
Green Office Guidance
Focused on developing good practice and include key steps for both organisational governance and operations. This series will be helpful for directors, managers and practitioners of cultural heritage organisations who are looking to integrate environmental governance and practice within their buildings and sites.
ROCK ran from May 2017 to April 2020. This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No 730280. Visit their website here.