During a recent LDnet WG “New Ideas” meeting, we had the opportunity to present and discuss the concept note of IN-COMMONS, a proposal currently under development for the Horizon Europe – New European Bauhaus call: “HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-03 – Approaches to reuse vacant, obsolete or underutilised spaces”. The proposal — developed in collaboration between CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) and CNR (Italian National Research Council) — addresses one of the most urgent territorial challenges in Europe: the growing number of vacant, obsolete, abandoned, and underused spaces across urban, peri-urban, and rural contexts.
Across Europe, many former factories, barracks, convents, industrial sites, railway infrastructures, and public buildings have already been transformed into cultural centres, libraries, museums, educational facilities, housing projects, or recreational spaces. Yet many regeneration initiatives still remain strongly focused on physical adaptation, architectural redesign, or market-led redevelopment.
IN-COMMONS starts from a different assumption: vacancy is not only a material condition, but also the result of processes of “invisibilisation”. Urban “invisibility” refers to spatial dynamics that systematically conceal, marginalise, disconnect, or devalue certain places, communities, and practices within planning systems and collective imaginaries. These dynamics often reinforce abandonment, segregation, underutilisation, and exclusion, while hiding important social, cultural, ecological, and spatial potentials. As emerged during the LDnet discussion, invisibility may affect: abandoned railway stations and infrastructures; temporary or transitional spaces; former event-led developments; occupied or informally reused buildings; peripheral neighbourhoods and shrinking areas; residual or “leftover” spaces often excluded from dominant planning narratives. The team also recalled the concept of SLOAP (“Space Left Over After Planning”), highlighting how many residual urban spaces are themselves products of conventional planning approaches that overlook everyday territorial practices and community needs.
IN-COMMONS therefore proposes to move beyond conventional regeneration approaches by focusing on:
- the drivers of vacancy, obsolescence, and invisibility
- the loss of social agency and collective meaning in underused spaces
- commons-based governance approaches
- community participation and co-creation
- neighbourhood-based transformation processes
- adaptive and socially embedded reuse strategies.
The proposal investigates different dimensions of invisibility: Morphological invisibility (physically disconnected, inaccessible, fragmented, or spatially neglected spaces); Functional invisibility (obsolete or mono-functional areas excluded from contemporary urban life); Social invisibility (spaces associated with marginalised groups, fragile communities, or unequal access to resources); Perceptive and cognitive invisibility (places absent from collective narratives, symbolic recognition, and public perception).
Understanding these dynamics requires a multidisciplinary and multiscale methodology combining:
- spatial and territorial analysis
- participatory and community-based research
- sensory and experiential approaches
- governance analysis
- commons-oriented practices
- co-creation and neighbourhood activation tools
Rather than approaching reuse only as a technical redevelopment operation, IN-COMMONS aims to reconnect spaces with communities through collective stewardship, participation, and socially embedded regeneration processes. The proposal also directly addresses several New European Bauhaus and Horizon Europe priorities, such as: circularity and sufficiency principles; “no net land take” objectives; social inclusion and accessibility; affordability and anti-displacement strategies; ecological resilience and adaptive reuse; participatory governance and policy innovation.
The discussion within LDnet was particularly valuable because it highlighted the importance of integrating local development perspectives, temporary uses, community-led initiatives, and non-metropolitan contexts into broader regeneration debates.
Following this exchange, we would like to invite LDnet members and interested organisations to contribute to the ongoing development of the initiative by:
- proposing relevant case studies
- sharing experiences of temporary, adaptive, or community-led reuse
- identifying invisible or underused spaces in their territories
- contributing stories, practices, and local narratives
- expressing interest in collaboration, pilot activities, or associate partnership
We are especially interested in cases from:
- small and medium-sized cities
- peripheral and shrinking territories
- underused infrastructures and railway areas
- commons-based initiatives
- housing and social innovation projects
- temporary or transitional uses of space.
At a time when Europe faces housing pressures, land consumption challenges, and increasing territorial inequalities, regenerating vacant spaces cannot be reduced to a purely architectural or market-driven exercise. It also requires making invisible spaces — and invisible communities — visible again.
Call Reference: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-03
Funding Programme: Horizon Europe – New European Bauhaus
Indicative budget: €4.5 million
Deadline: 1 December 2026
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