Governance of Innovative Building Practices: Case of the 3rd District Municipality of Budapest

Abstract: This paper presents an analytical framework of governing innovative building practices at a municipal level based on conclusions drawn from the Strategic Niche Management (SNM) approach. The analytical framework viewed the Village House Block demonstration project and EnSURE transnational research collaboration as important facilitators to create the necessary conditions for governing innovation during the renovation of the outdated building stock located in the 3rd District Municipality of Budapest, Hungary. These necessary conditions were articulated in accordance with the three internal processes (the articulation of expectations and visions, the building of social networks and the fostering of learning processes) defined by SNM research. Additionally, the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) methodology was considered as a viable tool to guide energy efficient urban development in the district. It was found in this research that the Village House Block renovation represented a local technological niche project during which the feasibility of active and passive building technology was tested. This study revealed that the necessary conditions for governing innovation were present in this project. EnSURE was a collaborative research project which did not represent a clear example of technological niche development. It was defined as an important initiative to collect and accumulate knowledge and experiences from local niche projects to create a strategic tool for supporting energy efficient urban development at the municipal level. In this case study, the tool was the Sustainable Energy Action Plan. Overall, it was found that the necessary conditions did not only appear in technological niche projects, such as the Village House Block demonstration project but also in other types of projects, such as EnSURE. Furthermore, it could be argued that the governance of innovative approaches requires an operational framework in which different projects are managed to create these necessary conditions for local technological niche development. At global niche-level, it was revealed that the SEAP or other action plan methodologies could offer a tool to utilise experiences gained from local niches to create an energy efficient urban development strategy. In practice, it was shown that the importance of experimentation with new technologies and the governance of innovation on a strategic way still in its infancy in the 3rd District.