Participation within urban regeneration process : Exploring citizens visions of post-industrial area

Abstract: With the more profound use of sustainable developments and degrowth ideas, new trends emerge where urban planners and architects are looking for already built areas that can be re-imaginedas vibrant parts of the city. Most often, those places are post-industrial sites, which are taking a new image and purpose. Multiple examples in European cities shows that those areas are becoming a new vital urban elements and fruitful grounds for implementation of environmentally protective design solutions. However, metamorphic developments of historically important parts of the cities are often susceptible to uninspiring generic design solutions that not necessarily always meet the current needs of citizens. Therefore, this research identifies how such post-industrial zones should be redeveloped with the use of citizens' visions to produce distinctive design solutions that can additionally incorporate sustainable ideas and develop a vibrant area.This research focuses on the post-industrial case in Osijek, Croatia, an old and abandoned Iron Foundry and Machine Factory (OLT). Constructed at the turn of the century (1912.), with its distinguishable architecture, it serves as an important image and industrial heritageof the city. Recently, Osijek Municipality has proposed a plan for its regeneration. Idea became widely appreciated as it was finally decided to somehow protect this valuable public good. However, as this research identifies, the municipal plan does not incorporate any means of citizen participation, nor it goes together with citizens mentioned needs - thus pursuing a plan for developing a generic design. Using qualitative methods, this research is addressing the importance of participation in such projects, as it can focus expertson the hidden meaning and character of the place, derived from citizens’ outputs. Additionally, this research shows that methods suchas participatory workshop, can generate ideas for design solutions that can benefit both current and future users of the place. Furthermore, it suggests that citizens, even though they are notexperts on the topic – can produce interesting and valuable information that can be used by planners and architects to fully utilise and transform the area with design solutions which can incorporate people’s needs.