HeritACT was a Horizon Europe-funded project that redefined the role of cultural heritage in contemporary society by positioning it as a catalyst for inclusive placemaking, sustainability, and everyday life. It promoted a European perspective on heritage as a living resource connecting arts, humanities, and digital technologies, fostering collaboration, creativity, and community well-being.

Using participatory design in three cities, it offered a decision-support system for reactivating heritage sites and cultural identity. HERITHUBS, hybrid hubs for culture, innovation, and education, enable inclusive interaction among citizens, CCIs, and local actors.

HeritACT activates local communities in co-envisioning and co-designing sustainable and innovative solutions for public space and heritage sites. It introduces innovative and inclusive architectural and design solutions as well as cultural-artistic practices to support environmental and cultural sustainability and to strengthen the cultural and creative industries through community awareness and policy making across European urban areas of different scales and cultural settings.

Ιts placemaking approach followed four design phases:

• Co-recognitioning, which consists of the joint process of identifying the needs and challenges of each community.
• Co-envisioning for each pilot city and the shaping of a shared vision regarding how the public spaces and monuments of a city can benefit the communities and be benefited by them.
• Co-designing a series of non-invasive architectural and digital solutions.
• Co-implementation of the architectural solutions produced within the project with equal participation, inclusion, and recognition of everyone.

14 partners from 5 EU Countries (Universities, Research Organisations, SSH Experts, Architectural Studios, SMEs, Municipalities, Cultural Organisations).

9 solutions, 7 digital tools

Pilot locations: Eleusis (Greece), Milan (Italy) and Ballina (Ireland)

MENTOR was in charge of community engagement activities for co-designing, evaluating and testing the proposed digital tools and new technologies, coordinating activation events, stakeholder analysis and engagement plans and communication of HeritACT solutions and practices in Eleusis.

GENERAL CONCEPT
Working on HERITAGE NETWORKS: Promotion of collaborative governance of cultural development and participative activation strategies.
Working on EXPERIENCES: Establishment of the link among heritage and people combining multidisciplinary expertise and real-life/virtual experiences.
Working on HERITAGE ACTIVATION SOLUTIONS: Development of innovative design and architecture solutions for the activation of European heritage, being inspired by NEB principles.
Working with COMMUNITIES focusing on INCLUSION: Creation of engagement pathways that ensure optimal levels of inclusion.
Working with ‘PARASITIC’ STRUCTURES: Redefinition and reconfiguration of existing urban/natural infrastructures providing a new perspective to the community.
Working on COMMUNITY SYSTEMS: Use of System Dynamics modelling from the early stages of the collaborative design process.

HeritACT was funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe (HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-01), Grant Agreement No. 101094998.