Urban regeneration of a neighbourhood involving residents into the upgrading processes

Abstract

The aim of the graduation project is a (re)development plan for a neighbourhood in a deteriorating district of Naujininkai, Vilnius. A neighbourhood faces the major issues which are common in the districts around the city centre built in Soviet times. Worn out building environment, ageing, low-income population lead to threats of social segregation. A revitalization of this kind of neighbourhoods is an important issue for the city. There is a need to attract more people in the more central areas because the city has huge sprawl issues what is the reason for a low density of the city.
One of the objectives of a neighbourhood plan was to revitalize the area by involving the community and other stakeholders in planning and upgrading processes. A proposed neighbourhood plan encourages people by giving ‘guidelines and recommendations’ to improve their environment. ‘Guidelines and recommendations’ explain how the improvements could be made, and how ‘win-win’ situations between private- public sector could happen in the upgrading processes.
The other objective of the design was to switch planning from the top- down to participatory and from zoning to strategic.
 The proposed neighbourhood plan is alternative planning method which encourages participation, provides guidelines and one development vision/plan.

The third objective of the design was to solve dilemma between control and self-organization.
 It is proposed to integrate a neighbourhood plan with its spatial plan and guidelines into the interactive online tool. An interactive tool should help to organize the dialogues between the community, private sector, and municipality, to make the easier process for the implementation of the neighbourhood regeneration plan.