Good practice:

HOPE PROJECT: Home of People and Equality in Empoli, Tuscany

The PIU HOPE Project helps to redevelop Empoli’s old town centre, with the objective of promoting new urban centres within which to converge a plurality of complementary functions devoted to different areas, to be adopted as opportunities for developing the territory. The specific objectives of the project are: reducing social hardship in the field of social-health services through the restoration of buildings and areas to be allocated to social functions; creating an integrated system of services to support innovation and the socio- economic development of the territory, including in synergy with the University of Florence already present in the accessible part of the ancient Hospital S.Giuseppe - the hearth of this urban regeneration action; creating the functional and smart connection of the open public spaces related to the areas of action; promoting new forms of social aggregation in order to improve the integration of the most marginalized and vulnerable categories of Empoli society. One of the peculiarities of HOPE project is represented by the extremely complex goal of the revitalisation of an important area of the old town centre of a town of nearly 50,000 inhabitants, through integrated and intersectoral actions that are the result of participatory and specific analysis of the territorial data collected. The regeneration strategy aims at strengthening the role of Empoli’s old town centre as place of identity, a hub of services - both at local and metropolitan level.

Total Budget request: € 8.129.933,00
Accepted budget request: € 7.790.298,62
ERDF ROP 2014-2020 financing: € 4.801.798,88 (50% are ERDF Fundings), (35% are Government Fundings), (15% Regione Toscana regional fundings)
The project is managed by the staff of the Urban Dept. of the City of Empoli

The project aims to regenerate and transform: 6 open areas (2 squares, 1 courtyard, 3 public gardens) for a total of 8,300 sqmt and 4 abandoned historical buildings for a total of 9,000 sqmt.
The old buildings will have 800 sqmt for new social functions+1,500 sqm for new economic ad social activities+1,740 sqmt for socio-sanitary functions+850 sqmt for cultural activities+2,811 sqmt will host energy saving new systems to reduce the energy consumption of public buildings.

The hardest challenges are mainly represented by the fact that the project public works insist on an ancient historical urban area. The Italian law and rules for this kind of public interventions and often very heavy and not encouraging for local administrations because of the administrative burden.

HOPE project has been developed on the basis of the result of a public debate organized by the Municipality of Empoli in Dec. 2011. The results of the public debate which involved many citizens, entrepreneurs and cultural subjects have represented the basis for HOPE project development ideas +actions. The new functions of the old abandoned buildings and historical areas were identified and decided thanks to the contribution of those who participated in the public debate "Centro Punto e a Capo" (Empoli Historical center facing a new start). The intermediate stages of the development of the project have been always presented to the city in a public form thanks also to EURE Project public events.
An additional element of potential learning is represented by the energy saving actions that go together with the urban renewal intervention: the 4 old buildings will host a 2,811 sqmt of structures for energy saving systems that will reduce primary energy consumption by 930.962,95 kW yearly.