What is Urban Regeneration?

It is characterised by significant non-physical interventions and brokerage to maximise the social, cultural, environmental and economic outcomes and requires new policy and planning frameworks. Most importantly, citizens also need to be empowered as part of the process. Crucially, this is where urban regeneration differs from urban intensification or urban renewal. It is important to understand and recognise the differences between these approaches and the outcomes they deliver on the ground.

Urban regeneration is a more holistic approach than intensification and renewal, with a focus on delivering wellbeing as well as changes to the built environment. We’d describe urban regeneration as happening with a community, instead of to a community.

Urban renewal, and in some cases regeneration, has historically been associated with gentrification and displacement. Although usually associated with the USA, there was in-fact a global movement of large scale slum clearance, displacement of vulnerable communities, and destruction of communities done under the guise of improving the health and wellbeing of the city. Many of the assumptions about the areas requiring renewal were rooted in institutional racism and classism, but many were also well-meaningbut poorly visioned and implemented. Reckoning with these unfortunate and sometimes brutal histories is important as we think about urban regeneration in the 21st century. What we know now is that a top-down, opaque approach simply does not work. There will always be the need for large scale infrastructure and neighbourhood improvements in our cities -but we cannot ignore the existing social geography of a place.

This is why good urban regeneration is characterised by intersectional collaboration, visioning, and brokering. Strong frameworks and structures are needed to guide regeneration projects through fragmented processes of engagement, planning,construction, and management. At The Urban Advisory, our experience and research has guided our understanding and development of regeneration principles, models, and frameworks. Establishing these early in a development is crucial to clarify what we are talking about when we are talking about urban regeneration.

Case Study Framework: Walworth, London, United Kingdom

Cities like London, with long histories, are no strangers to urban regeneration. Through time they have constantly had to adapt to growth and various changes. The local community of Walworth was recently included in a collection of regeneration initiatives for the Southwark area, south of the Thames River. With Walworth, we really loved that this community engaged Urban Strategists to provide support to co-develop and co-deliver a framework for regeneration. The Urban Strategy team from ‘We Made That’ worked with a wide range of local stakeholders, through conversations, workshops and observations to develop the ideas for priority projects. The result of this work was the ‘What Walworth Wants’ regeneration strategy. The projects were carefully developed to co-ordinate with each other, and be delivered through an incremental and aggregated approach. It is this kind of strategic thinking that we want to see more of, where the impact of placemaking programmes, rather than individual projects, helps everyone’s investment go that bit further. The ‘What Walworth Wants’ strategy was developed to be a practical tool for the co-delivery of projects, by residents, community groups, public authorities and other stakeholders. The graphic design and structure of this document is also very user-friendly and accessible. Together, these support both the co-ownership and co-delivery of the regeneration projects. This process is a more involving, tangible regeneration framework for South London.

Before we dive too deep, we should also understand what a Regeneration Framework is. A Regeneration Framework is a holistic and actionable strategy for regeneration. It should include a collective vision, key strategies, objectives, partnership agreements and delivery indicators for a regeneration project.

In practice, a Regeneration Framework supports accountability, project delivery and performance. They provide regeneration partners, stakeholders and the community with certainty, confidence and clarity about how regeneration will be delivered.

• Working with all stakeholders to develop a Regeneration Framework connects delivery with design and ensures that the regeneration programme is co-created and co-owned by everyone that affects or will be affected by the regeneration process.
• Establishing a clear guiding framework is needed to help create certainty for the investment community and key delivery partners, This increases the likelihood that the shared vision and all the great ideas developed through community engagementcan be delivered.
• Developing a deep understanding of the challenges, opportunities & constraintsneeds to underpin all project planning.
• Strong leadership from local councils is key; investing strategically in the publicrealm (such as transport improvements or pedestrian facilities) to generate private investment provides more significant Return On Investment in line with project objectives.
• Masterplans need to be delivery-oriented, at both area-scale and site-scale.
• Resilience is built through supporting mixed uses and diverse activities and a varietyof amenities integrated throughout the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, projects are individual interventions or actions that act as a centrepiece or catalyst for a wider regeneration programme. Design of the projects should be developed according to the broader programme’s framework, to act as a tangible example of what regeneration will look like and represent for a district. Some of the best regeneration projects are bold, creative, and symbolic for the context they occur in. These can go on to be catalysts for further investment or promotion of the regenerating district.

Case Study Project: Superkilen,Copenhagen, Denmark

Situated in Nørrebro, the Superkilen is a massive 750m linear park that has allowed communities to embed their identities in the built landscape. Oneof Copenhagen’s most diverse and impoverished neighbourhoods, the area near Superkilen facednegative social perceptions and isolation. As part of a wider regeneration programme, the Superkilen was envisaged as a ‘world exhibition’ to reflect the diverse communities in theneighbourhood. The designers and architects undertook “extreme public participation” to design the park. This resulted in three zones: a market / culture / sportszone, an urban living room, and a sport and nature green zone. Throughout the park are elements sourced from the home nations of many of theneighbourhood’s residents, including swings from Iraq, South African braai, and manhole covers from Israel.

Integrated with the cycling and walking network, Superkilen has increased connectivity and pride among the communities, being a popular place to meet, play, relax,cycle, and walk. Throughout the regeneration process, Nørrebro has undergone a change in perceptions- to the point where Time Outmagazine named it the World’s Coolest Neighbourhood in 2021.

Successful regeneration projects are built within good regeneration frameworks. So, based on successful urban regeneration frameworks and projects, we’ve compiled 10 Urban regeneration principles that we keep in mind in our work in the urban regeneration space.

Collectively, these principles demonstrate what is required to deliver the holistic outcomes of urban regeneration, consistently, across the various stages of the project.

1. Coordinated Strategic Partnerships

Well-executed urban regeneration relies on robust strategic and delivery partnerships from the beginning: between Council, Government, mana whenua, private sector and community partners. With a view toward delivery, regeneration partnership planning ensures that all the necessary players are involved and engaged in the project from day one and resources, knowledge, and skills are optimised.

2. Shared Vision & Objectives

Regeneration partners must form and commit to a shared vision for the project, with aligned values and objectives around what they aim to achieve through regeneration and how. Different partners may put greater focus and effort toward some objectives over others, but the collective vision must hold all of these in balance.

3. Delivery Tailored to Local Community & Context

At its core urban regeneration is about people and place. As such, development that applies replicable or ‘cookie cutter’ responses cannot be classified as urban regeneration. Urban regeneration strategies must be bespoke, developed and delivered as a specific and relevant response, tailored to local community needs, desires and aspirations and the unique constraints and opportunities of that place.This principle is one of the primary points of difference that sets urban regeneration apart from renewal and intensification.

4. Integrated Engagement & Participation

Community engagement and stakeholder participation is critical to urban regeneration. These processes must be woven throughout the regeneration process,from planning to delivery, engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders periodically and purposefully to verify objectives and planned outcomes. A Regeneration Framework is a helpful guiding document that can be developed with partners and stakeholder participation, to respond to local issues and integrate community aspirations into the regeneration process.

5. Performance Tracking & Accountability

Regeneration partners need to be held accountable to their stakeholders and each other, to check and reconfigure how they are performing and delivering on the regeneration objectives and desired outcomes, at each stage of the project. An independent regeneration board can support successful urban regeneration.

6. Resource Efficiency & Coordination

Successful urban regeneration understands and utilises the available resources (e.g.time, social capital, political power, financial capital, land and other assets, culturalknowledge etc) that different partners offer. Project planning should consider howto utilise what different partners bring to the table – their ability and willingnessto contribute from their particular resources, skill set and capacity etc – to deliver efficient and effective development outcomes.

7. Measuring, Monitoring & Evaluating Success

Robust urban regeneration must have clear development indicators of successthat are planned for, deliverable and measurable through monitoring over time. Successful regeneration doesn’t happen by accident, and a Framework for monitoring and measuring success makes it clear what the end goal is, and when the outcomes and objectives sought have been achieved.

8. Responsive Long-term & Short-term

Planning Capacity Urban regeneration projects are long-term, and delivery generally occurs in stages over several years, or decades even. Projects inevitably face variations and disruptions over time (e.g. changing political climate). Hence, it is important to have a suitably responsive or flexible Framework for regeneration planning and delivery that provides consistency and certainty for partners, but that can change and adapt as needed.

9. Prioritised Sustainability & Stewardship

To manage the process of change, sustainability and stewardship are critical. Ideally, communities are brought into the journey of regeneration (stewardship) and build a positive sense of ownership around the changes that occur. However, the inevitable disruption and change processes need to be dealt with by taking a deliberate approach to mitigate potentialnegative impacts and effects by working alongside the communities who live there. Sustainable regeneration seeks to serve both current and future generations,and to form a positive legacy in the built environment that endures beyond the life of the project.

10. Strong Leadership & Governance

Urban regeneration requires effective leadership throughout the entire process. A dedicated leadership team from central or local government (usually) is required to hold the vision and provide guidance and support to the regeneration delivery partners. But this team cannot be responsible on their own for delivering every aspect of a regeneration programme. Therefore,leaders must also maintain a two way communicationand engagement approach with cross-sector deliverypartners and stakeholders to enable a collaborativeapproach to leadership over the life cycle of theregeneration programme.

Urban development doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Historically, too muchintensification, renewal, and regeneration has happened withoutconsideration of the geographies of the neighbourhoods they happen within.

Adopting regeneration approaches with the principles highlighted in this article can lead to strong frameworks to guide theentire programme.For communities, being taken on the journey and actively involved in regeneration programmes gives them ownership over their neighbourhoods. We can build all of the pretty buildings and parks in the world, but if the process of building them has been distressing for communities, we will never find the urban wellbeing we hope to achieve. Urban regeneration practitioners must adopt frameworks and approaches that take a long term view of the needs of communities, embed accountability, and leave room for changing and adapting.

Strong, transparent, and committed governance is required to ensure this. Before any shovels hit soil, we should know why we are undertaking regeneration, what we want to achieve, what we need to do it, and who the regeneration will impact (and invite them to the table)! Setting outcomes and robust frameworks at the start of the process is a common theme across the regeneration projects highlighted here. In the past, cities have built places which have been oppressive and unhealthy, but strong communities have still thrived within - regeneration gives these communities an opportunity to stamp their identity and vision within the built form, it is the job for the public and private sector to enable and empower.