crowd2raum - Participatory co-financing models for socially innovative and sustainable reactivation for vacancies

Starting point / motivation

Strengthening town and city centres is a core objective in terms of sustainable and climate-friendly urban planning. It combines future-relevant topics such as inner-city development, 15-minute cities and mixed use - the effective use of vacancies is essential in this context.

Potential users of vacant properties include local makers (one-person companies, micro-enterprises, self-employed people, art and culture professionals, non-profit organizations and initiatives). Current research, particularly in Vienna, shows that their space needs are not covered by conventional real estate offers and that it is often not possible for them to activate vacancies due to a lack of financial resources, despite various funding models.

Contents and goals

The project uses innovative financing and engagement strategies that have not yet been used in vacancy activation in Austria. The aim is to test how the effectiveness of existing funding measures for vacancy activation can be increased in combination with reward-based crowdfunding. In addition to the possibility of financing projects, crowdfunding also has a placemaking effect due to its campaign character.

The campaigns carried out on WeLocally.at and imGrätzl.at, a local, location-based crowdfunding platform, also demonstrate that crowdfunding is particularly successful for the activation of spaces. The aim is to generate learnings for the development of a vacancy activation fund.

As the result of a follow-up project, the fund will be available in future as an ongoing co-financing option for vacancy-activating crowdfunding projects in Graz and Vienna. The exploratory project also serves to bring partners on board and to test in advance a process for transdisciplinary cooperation between the public sector, companies and other stakeholders (e.g. institutions at district level), which will be necessary for the successful implementation of the vacancy activation fund. The findings from this will directly contribute to the design of the innovation process in the follow-up R&D project.

Methods

As part of the exploratory project, co-financing models (linking existing funding and support programs with existing crowdfunding mechanisms) for the focused activation of vacant properties in the defined pilot areas will be developed and tested with a practical approach

First, a match-funding mechanism for Vienna and Graz will be developed in a co-creation process. Key vacant properties in the pilot areas will be defined, the conditions identified, and usage scenarios developed based on the actual space requirements of local makers. The vacant spaces are made visible via a call and connected with potential users.

The winners of the call are then introduced to the match-funding models and supported in the implementation of the crowdfunding. The process will be evaluated, e.g. regarding the design, impact and implementability of co-financing models for the activation of vacant space as well as the cooperation possibilities between the necessary partners as the basis for a planned vacancy activation fund, which is to be developed in a subsequent R&D project.

Expected results

The activation of at least four key properties in the base zone in the pilot areas in Vienna and Graz is planned. Thanks to the practice-oriented approach and the composition of the project team, multi-stakeholder cooperation processes and the impact of initial approaches to co-financing models for socially innovative and sustainable vacancy activation can be tested as part of this exploratory project.

The effects that can be generated through the combination of public funding and reward-based crowdfunding (match funding) will be analysed and whether and how the outreach and impact of both sources of funding can be increased through the combination. These are the central elements of the evaluation regarding the transfer into a subsequent R&D project, for knowledge generation in the participating cities and knowledge transfer to other climate pioneer cities (possibly further partners in the follow-up project).

Project management

morgenjungs GmbH

Project or cooperation partners

• WieNeu+ (Stadt Wien, MA25 -Technische Stadterneuerung)
• StadtLABOR – Innovationen für urbane Lebensqualität GmbH

morgenjungs GmbH
Mirjam Mieschendahl
Ottakringerstraße 94/11
A-1170 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (699) 150 282 77
E-mail: mirjam.mieschendahl@imgraetzl.at
Web: www.imgraetzl.at bzw. graz.welocally.at