The regeneration of large-scale Social Housing estates through LivingLabs (SoHoLab)

The SoHoLab project establishes and evaluates LivingLab approaches to understand how under-privileged residents, housing associations and other intermediaries can be effectively involved in the regeneration of large-scale social housing estates. It aims to develop approaches and best practices to address the social-spatial exclusion of residents in deprived large-scale social housing estates in Europe. In particular, its goals are to actively involve social housing residents in conceiving and realizing transformative projects for the regeneration of their housing environment to build up a counterhegemonic image of stigmatized neighborhoods and to engage in bonding and bridging efforts to align different actors and governance levels around shared interests. As such, the project aims to mobilize the socially innovative potential of co-productive and co-design approaches for urban regeneration of deprived neighborhoods, focusing on the priority themes of ‘social and spatial segregation’ and ‘social innovation’ in the EU’s Urban Agenda (EU, 2014-2020).

These approaches will be developed, tested and refined on the basis of an evaluation of existing regeneration projects in Paris, of an ongoing LivingLab experience in Milan and in new LivingLab projects in Brussels and Paris.