The activities of Pop-up-to-Date pivot around the conversion of vacant commercial properties into springboards for creative entrepreneurship. Supporting pop-up shops is not an innovative solution for transforming run-down neighbourhoods into vibrant city districts. Many local authorities experiment with pop-up policies. Very few, however, have an encompassing approach such as Antwerp (BE), for linking creative entrepreneurs to vacant retail units, which has been proven to work and produces lasting effects on both district and city level. The integrated multi-stakeholder approach displayed in Antwerp's Oud Berchem neighbourhood has proven to be an effective as well as inspiring methodology to transform a depreciated shopping area into a lively axis of creativity. The success ratio for the conversion of vacant retail units stands at 70%, with 60% of the units being long-term rented, and 10% being sold to entrepreneurs.

The activities of Pop-up-to-Date pivot around the conversion of vacant commercial properties into springboards for creative entrepreneurship. However, what’s most essential is the radical choice for a collaborative multi-stakeholder approach, which brings together different government levels, entrepreneurs, non-profit actors and local inhabitants. In this project, the local government takes up a role as enabler and funder. Non-profit organisations build on their close links with local communities and property owners to match vacant properties with creative entrepreneurial spirits. The approach starts with identifying the owners of vacant retail units on the one hand, and creative entrepreneurs on the other hand. The vacant retail unit is rented by a non-profit organisation on behalf of the local authority. Because the focus lies on decayed properties, it is lightly refurbished by means of local government funding prior to the rental period. During a fixed time frame of two months, it is then provided at a reduced tariff to starting creative entrepreneurs to try out their business in a real-life environment. After the project period, the profitability of the business and further ambitions of the starting entrepreneurs are evaluated, and customised coaching and counselling are made available.

Supporting pop-up shops is far from being an innovative solution for transforming run-down neighbourhoods into vibrant city districts. Many local authorities experiment with pop-up policies. Very few, however, have an encompassing approach in linking creative entrepreneurs to vacant retail units, which has been proven to work and produces lasting effects on both district and city level. The integrated approach of the project in Oud Berchem is exemplary for the horizontal and vertical integrated approach championed by URBACT. Horizontal integration results from multiple stakeholders joining forces to provide a mix of policy measures, ranging from financial stimuli, direct support by refurbishing retail units, coaching and matchmaking activities, aftercare through mediation between entrepreneurs and property owners to local community building activities (e.g. a quarterly neighbourhood newspapers, workshops etc.) and neighbourhood marketing. The soft measures in this project fit into a broader neighbourhood oriented strategy, involving ‘hard’ ERDF investments to increase the attractiveness of the shopping area in Oud Berchem and stimulate owners to renovate their commercial properties. Vertical integration is found in the expanding cooperation between the local authority, intermediary non-profit organisations, the Regional Government Agency for Entrepreneurial Education and different local stakeholders at the neighbourhood level.

In the original set-up, the local government worked in collaboration with and funded, LCB vzw (a local government non-profit organisation for local cultural policy) to match entrepreneurs and owners. The original funding scheme was elaborated in close cooperation with the local shopkeeper association. At any stage of the process, very close relationships were established with the involved creatives. Inspired by the results during the first editions of the biennial project, a new non-profit organisation, Creative Cities vzw, was created by local entrepreneurs. Creative Cities vzw has gradually developed complementary activities by providing starter coaching and mediation between owners and creatives following the two-month rental period. Due to their involvement, the impact of the project in terms of the number of retail units and entrepreneurs involved has increased. LCB vzw and Creative Cities vzw have concluded a cooperation agreement to further fine-tune their partnership and maximise their collaborative impact towards Oud Berchem. Also, the involvement of Creative Cities vzw has taken the project to a new level by creating structural partnerships with SYNTRA (the regional Flemish Government Agency for Entrepreneurial Training) and UNIZO (Organisation for the Self-Employed and SMEs). A next step is the approved ESF Transnational funded project “The Suburb Start-up Guide”, in which a higher education institute is involved by analysing the policy measures.

After three successful editions, the results are remarkable: • The success ratio for the conversion of vacant retail units stands at 70%, with 60% long-term rented units and 10% of units sold to entrepreneurs. • The streetscape has visually improved due to the refurbishment of the commercial properties, which has raised the districts' appeal. • A majority of the entrepreneurs involved (18 so far, and 10 newcomers in 2017) have reported having either started a permanent shop in the city or are continuing their activities on a freelance basis or through web shops. Networks among the entrepreneurs involved outlive the project periods. • New qualitative retailers are opting for long-time residence in the refurbished units. • Native middle-class consumers are starting to visit traditional migrant shops, while local migrant property owners are renting out their properties to young creative multicultural entrepreneurs. • The commercial success of flourishing pop-ups has also inspired owners not involved in the project, to refurbish their own retail units and/or try out new innovative business concepts. • Other city districts and cities in Flanders are interested in or have already adopted, the project’s ideas. • The project has been displayed by the local and supralocal press, thus contributing to a positive image of the neighbourhood. • The neighbourhood now functions as an incubator for spilling over new retail entrepreneurs to other city districts.

Creative placemaking is applied by many European cities as a method to both tackle building vacancy and foster entrepreneurship. Similar suburbs often harbour an equivalent of the creativity and diversity found in Oud Berchem. The power of the approach presented here lies in the win-win situation in which owners, creative entrepreneurs, local residents and local traders all benefit from the pop-up activities. This coalition of the winning provides a fertile ground on which the involved creative entrepreneurs can flourish. An important success factor is the involvement of a local cultural stakeholder like an arts centre, a community centre or local cultural or arts organisations. Its role is to monitor the artistic quality of the project, which largely determines its attractiveness for potential creatives. The project will work particularly well in urban or suburban areas with a pronounced neighbourhood character and easy access to public transport. The local authority needs to ensure local anchorage through close cooperation with all involved stakeholders. Likewise, it needs to develop a ‘feeling’ of how the area functions. To succeed, the organising city needs to build on its knowledge of the creative economy to generate qualitative commercial concepts that are able to attract visitors across neighbourhood/district boundaries.

SPAZIO13 is the conversion of a former disused school into a creative hub in a suburb of Libertà (IT). It is a community experience of social innovation and reuse of a decommissioned public building, having triggered the involvement of residents and stakeholders in the transformation process affecting the neighbourhood. This urban regeneration process includes an extensive network of 15 youth associations.
In addition to the public multicultural nursery school set up by the city, the property of 1,000 square metres is composed of three areas:
1) Informal Education (architectural/engineering design, photography, startup businesses, digital communication);
2) Making (fabLab 3D printing, carpentry, audio/video production, recording music, photo printing); and
3) Events and social spaces (co-working, public library, public events and conversations).

SPAZIO13 offers a virtuous and subsidiary solution of community conversion of an abandoned public space strongly integrated with urban regeneration through social innovation levers and the leadership of a local youth network. A good practice of conversion, participation and innovation focused on communities, residents and local economies. SPAZIO13 is a learning space and its concept was started by a collective research action conducted on the neighbourhood identity by 15 associations of young architects, urban planners, designers, photographers, communication experts and European policies experts with residents, families and young residents. Through its participatory methodology approach to conversion of public space, SPAZIO13 is an antidote to gentrification in city suburbs. Its cultural offering, stratified into different sections (education, production and collaboration), provides interdisciplinary and multi-target methods for dialogue with the neighbourhood, highly integrated with the local networks and strongly oriented objectives of economic rebirth.

SPAZIO13 fully complies with the URBACT principles and challenges both in the sustainable development dimension and integration. SPAZIO13 is a community experience of reuse and conversion that seeks the social inclusion of vulnerable groups in the processes of regeneration, activating education courses, participation, social innovation, promoting new opportunities and job skills. As reuse experience stands in contrast with the soil consumption policies, the prominence of 15 NGOs ensures a very broad urban partnership. SPAZIO13 also responds effectively to the horizontal integration and vertical principles promoted by URBACT. In terms of horizontal integration SPAZIO13 is characterized by being simultaneously a physical redevelopment of a public space, a social experience of shared management, a cultural laboratory of participation and an enabler of local economies in the neighbourhood, promoting new skills and collaborative networks. In terms of vertical integration, SPAZIO13 is a virtuous experience of PPP between the city of Bari and civil society. SPAZIO13 was inspired by the will of the city to convert the former school in the target neighbourhood of its regeneration strategy. A local group was selected after a national tender. Governance involves the municipality of Bari, neighbourhoods, civil society, local economy representatives, university and residents.

SPAZIO13 is a collaborative project that is based on the participation of civil society and local networks preliminarily involved in the co-design phase of conversion. The city of Bari established a partnership with the local group. Subsequently, the partnership involved the local university, representatives of the local economy, cultural stakeholders and residents' associations to define the best proposal. The start of the conversion has been marked by two important experiences: a photo contest opened to all residents to attest to the school’s identity before the change with a hashtag on Instagram (#nontiscordardimelo) and Huffington Post as a media partner, an experience of collective self-building to adapt the spaces at the new functions. The space was furnished through an open call to residents to donate disused furniture and fittings in exchange for participation in the courses. Neighbourhood focus groups were held to define priorities and activities. More info: http://spazio13.org/

Some results of SPAZIO13 have already been achieved, and other objectives are being realized. The results achieved and expected are: 1) promote the conversion of the former school through a collective self-build path and co-design workshops with associations and residents, 2) activate an urban laboratory of education, production and social innovation serving communities, 3) promote a collaborative network at the neighbourhood level composed by associations, professionals, institutional, economic and research that can play an active role in the regeneration process. Regarding the first, SPAZIO13 has involved 15 NGOs and 80 young people (16-35 age group) in the co-design of 1 000 square metres and same path was made on branding that has been marked by a visual identity defined in a participatory way. On the second result SPAZIO13 is involving 630 young people in informal educational courses and trainings and hosts five start-ups in co-working. On the third objective, SPAZIO13 has managed the involvement of 1 110 people, including residents and local stakeholders (universities, schools, local economy representations, cooperatives, youth associations etc.) in public events and discussions. In terms of social impact, SPAZIO13 proposes an overall increase of awareness on participatory planning (+25%), an empowerment of new skills (+ 15%), an increase of knowledge about the neighbourhood regeneration plan involving 10 000 inhabitants, other 25 NGOs and more than 10 local schools.

SPAZIO13 is part of a holistic approach to urban regeneration and enhancement of young people that Bari started three years ago in compliance with the regional political framework that has represented a vanguard on the European scale for urban creativity issues (European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2012, Regiostar 2015). The city has led a regeneration focused on the reuse of public properties and the redevelopment of open spaces through the levers of culture, leisure, theatre, contemporary arts and commerce, with a strong focus on youth capabilities. An urban programme that includes: the conversion of a large former barracks (20,000 square metres) into an extensive urban park with a public library and the new Academy of Fine Arts; the conversion of a former theatre into the Museum of Contemporary Arts (10,000 square metres), an old parking garage into a theatre research centre (2,000 square metres), the conversion of a tobacco factory (40,000 square metres) into a huge campus of scientific research and technological innovation. Knowledge from Bari on reuse, urban regeneration and social innovation has already been shared at URBACT level. SPAZIO13 may be interesting to all European cities that are involved in regeneration processes because it demonstrates how social innovation models and creative hubs can play a key role in activating and involving people in deprived neighbourhoods.