“Let’s bring new life to the Adriatic ports” is the title of the closing conference held on 29 March as part of the project TEMPUS (TEMPorary USes as start-up actions to enhance port (in)tangible heritage) in Bari. The conference was attended by representatives of nine partner organizations from Croatia (including the Rijeka Development Agency Porin d.o.o.) and Italy to find the best solutions to breathe new life into the historic ports of Ravenna, Rijeka and Solin.
Participants of the conference pointed out that abandoned port areas that used to be filled with life, passengers, seafarers and trade, are ideal places for various innovative cultural and economic activities. One of the most promising industries is certainly IT entrepreneurship, which opens up countless opportunities for young people on the global market.
The conference discussed, among other things, the projects of the port authority and the temporary use of ports as the beginning of the process of improving the port's (non-)material heritage, with a special emphasis on three project pilot areas – the ports of Ravenna, Solin and Rijeka. We talked about the new life of the port of Ravenna, that is, the setting based on containers at the headquarters of the Agrarian Consortium, the future of business premises in the Solin Football Club building and the use of the port of Rijeka and port heritage as a temporary stage for various cultural events. The web platform “My Port Heritage: Urban regeneration of port heritage in the Adriatic Sea’.
Works from the recently held open innovation competition received particular attention: Innovathona. It's a kind of The Marathon Idea where young people at the same time in three port cities in Italy and Croatia (Ravenna, Rijeka and Solin) devised innovative projects relying on their technical knowledge, creativity, spirit of adaptation, problem-solving skills and teamwork to find solutions for the new entrepreneurial and economic life of the three pilot ports of the TEMPUS project. Among the many ideas, the winner was selected by an international jury – an idea called Angela Angela Platform. It is a reconstruction of Angela Angelina's old oil platform on the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea. The solution envisages the renovation of the platform for tourist purposes, so in the future, numerous educational and gastronomic workshops will take place on the upper part of the platform after the renovation, while at its base there will be facilities for the renewal of fish stocks.
The TEMPUS project – TEMporary USes as start-up actions to enhance port (in)tangible heritage – brings together nine partners from Croatia and Italy to regenerate abandoned urban port areas, respecting cultural heritage and community customs. The value of the project is 2,706,920,00 euros, of which 85% grants are co-financed by the European Union through the cross-border cooperation programme INTERREG V-A Italy-Croatia 2014-2020.
The primary goal of the TEMPUS project is to test the experimental methodology of regeneration of neglected urban port areas, by creating long-term strategies based on culture and community. In addition, TEMPUS aims to connect partner cities with their ports and create a new space of social life that will encourage creative entrepreneurship, as well as entrepreneurial initiatives in culture and tourism. In the long term, the project aims to stimulate economic development based on the valorisation of the hidden tangible and intangible heritage of the ports, including the archaeological background and the natural context, starting with temporary use activities.
For more information: Antonio Occhiuzzi, occhiuzzi@itc.cnr.it
