Co-creating strategies for heritage reactivation: HeritACT pilot cases in Eleusis, Milan and Ballina

Purpose The purpose of this article is to present a three-stage co-creation process implemented within the HeritACT project. HeritACT, aligned with the New European Bauhaus initiative, explores heritage reactivation as climate action. This article details the application of online surveys and workshops in three pilot cases – Eleusis, Milan and Ballina – to engage local stakeholders. The aim is to identify unique challenges, objectives and potential barriers for each pilot, ultimately developing tailored heritage reactivation strategies. This process seeks to establish a foundation for future community engagement phases: co-recognition, co-envisioning and co-implementation. Design/methodology/approach The proposed process combines a selection of methods and digital tools to support local stakeholders to identify particular challenges and contexts for urban management, what each pilot case expects to achieve and how, and the associated barriers and risks. It involved three stages: (1) an online survey with each local municipality stakeholder to help identify the unique characteristics of each pilot case. (2) An online co-creation workshop for each pilot case. (3) An output-sharing workshop to generate discussion and refine outcomes. Findings The HeritACT project successfully implemented a three-stage co-creation process across its pilot cases in Eleusis, Milan and Ballina. This process, involving online surveys and workshops, effectively identified the unique challenges and objectives for each location. In Eleusis, the focus shifted to developing a governance model for reactivated spaces. Milan aimed to establish a network of resilient community hubs within its “cascina”. Ballina’s strategy centred on reactivating vacant religious buildings to build community resilience. The co-creation methodology, combining digital tools and stakeholder engagement, proved crucial for understanding local requirements and setting the stage for future co-recognition, co-envisioning and co-implementation phases. Originality/value The originality and value of this article lie in its proposed three-stage co-creation process for heritage reactivation, which integrates online surveys and workshops. This process’s innovation is its ability to foster comprehensive discussions and establish stepping stones for future community engagement phases within the HeritACT project. Furthermore, the methodology has been designed to be generalisable and replicable across diverse cultural, planning, and socio-economic contexts. The article offers a valuable contribution by presenting a process that effectively renders visible the nuanced requirements of each pilot case (Eleusis, Milan and Ballina) and facilitates the development of tailored heritage reactivation strategies aligned with the New European Bauhaus principles. This approach expands existing co-creation methodologies by combining digital tools to generate curated roadmaps for co-recognition, co-envisioning and co-implementation.