Revitalizing Post-Industrial Peripheries: Regional Network for Sustainable Urban Regeneration
Název projektu:
Revitalizing Post-Industrial Peripheries: Regional Network for Sustainable Urban Regeneration
Hlavní řešitel:
Gergely Papp – PAD Foundation for environmental justice/Hungary
Partneři:
University of Ostrava, Faculty of Arts (Ostrava, CZ)
Spolka (Košice, SK)
University of Rzeszów, Institute of History (Rzeszów, PL)
Tým Ostravské Univerzity:
Balogh Róbert, PhD
Fabiánová Klára, Mgr.
Kantorová Petra, Mgr.
Lakócai Csaba, PhD
Pál Viktor, doc., PhD
Doba realizace projektu:
1. června 2025 – 28. února 2026
Poskytovatel:
Visegrad Grants (No. 22510356) from the International Visegrad Fund
Proč je tento projekt důležitý? / Why is this project important?
Across East-Central Europe, vast post-industrial peripheries define the edges of cities like Ostrava—former steelworks, contaminated riverfronts, socialist housing estates, and brownfields that once anchored industrial economies. These territories:
- formed the backbone of employment, infrastructure, and community life during the socialist era,
- now face environmental degradation, social stigma, and economic underutilization,
- hold untapped potential as laboratories for just green transitions and adaptive urban regeneration.
The University of Ostrava′s contribution to the Revitalizing Postindustrial Peripheries project delivers a shared regional framework for understanding, comparing, and transforming these complex landscapes through evidence-based methodologies and cross-border collaboration.
Understanding post-industrial landscapes from Ostrava′s perspective
Ostrava′s cases reject viewing postindustrial sites as isolated liabilities. Instead, they reveal interconnected socio-ecological systems shaped by:
- heavy industrial heritage,
- post-socialist privatization and deindustrialization,
- current governance challenges including fragmented ownership and limited municipal capacity.
This holistic lens uncovers not just burdens—polluted waterways, obsolete housing—but regeneration opportunities like blue-green corridors and circular economy pilots.
Common challenges, Ostrava opportunities
Typical regional issues manifest acutely in Ostrava:
- contaminated soils/water from metallurgy
- dilapidated public spaces and stigmatized housing
- ownership fragmentation and decarbonization pressures.
Yet Ostrava demonstrates emerging strengths:
- municipal-led regeneration programs,
- university-city-industry research partnerships,
- spontaneous biodiversity recovery and community activation,
- energy retrofits cutting emissions 60% while preserving heritage.
These form the foundation for Ostrava-specific adaptive regeneration models scalable across V4+ cities.
Ostrava′s three emblematic cases
The project analyzes 13 regional sites; Ostrava contributes three representing housing, waterfront, and active industry:
- Ostrilova Street High-Rise—Modernist 1960s tower transformed via retrofit.
- Ostravice Riverfront—50 ha brownfield reborn as promenades, cycle paths, and cultural reuse amid flood control.
- Liberty Steelworks—a 700 ha active complex pioneering low-carbon steel, waste-heat recovery, and brownfield innovation hubs.
These urban-scale cases maintain local specificity while enabling regional comparison.
Four transformation clusters in Ostrava context
Ostrava cases map to the project′s four thematic lenses:
- Green Development: Riverfront biodiversity restoration, steelworks circular material flows
- Public Space Housing: High-rise social activation, inclusive ground-floor redesign
- Heritage City Image: Modernist reinterpretation, industrial memory activation
- Economy Reuse: Workforce reskilling, logistics/education brownfield reuse
Six shared evaluation dimensions
Ostrava analysis applies consistent metrics across clusters:
- Land use (reused vs. vacant proportions)
- Environment (remediation, biodiversity indicators)
- Governance (actor coordination)
- Functional intensity (employment/use diversity)
- Social accessibility (public access, mobility)
- Strategic outlook (Just Transition alignment)
Cross-cutting themes emerging from Ostrava: multifunctionality, connectivity, participatory governance, climate resilience, and cultural continuity.
Leverage points: Small steps, systemic impact
Ostrava identifies actionable entry points triggering transformation:
- Opening fenced riverfront access,
- Legitimizing informal uses in housing estates,
- Plant-city collaboration for decarbonization roadmaps,
- University-led social research supporting municipal planning.
Ostrava′s contribution to regional development
The University of Ostrava team equips stakeholders—municipalities (Ostrava City), planners (MAPPA studio), NGOs, investors (Liberty Steel)—with:
- evaluation matrices and transferable tools (blue-green strategies, retrofit models),
- case documentation integrated into digital platform,
- policy recommendations aligning with EU Green Deal/Just Transition.
Towards Ostrava′s just green transition
This project reframes Ostrava′s postindustrial core from burden to strategic asset where ecological restoration (riverfront), social integration (housing), heritage activation (modernism), and circular economy (steel) mutually reinforce—a model for V4+ industrial cities.
Klíčové výstupy / Key Outputs:
Regional platform: www.postindustrial.network
- Adaptive Regeneration framework publication (ISBN 978-615-81918-8-3)
- Case Studies collection featuring Ostrava sites (ISBN 978-615-81918-9-0)
Funded by International Visegrad Fund (ID 22510356)
Zveřejněno / aktualizováno: 27. 02. 2026
