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Cosa significa patrimonio culturale urbano? Per noi, è un mix caleidoscopico di persone, che costruiscono modi insoliti di vivere e luoghi comuni, attraverso il patrimonio culturale. Questa è stata l’approccio di ROCK, un progetto che ha preso spazi quotidiani in diverse città storiche europee, trasformandoli in luoghi di produzione culturale collaborativa, depositi di energie creati- ve temporanee, rivendicazioni politiche e sfide. ROCK (Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities) è un progetto europeo finanziato nell’ambito di H2020 (GA 730280) sulla rigenerazione delle aree urbane guidata dal patrimonio culturale. Ha creato un quadro europeo di azioni e riflessioni tra 10 città bilanciando la condivisione europea dei valori e le specificità dei luoghi, nella loro struttura fisica, socia- le, politica, culturale e memoriale. What does urban cultural heritage mean? For us, it is a kaleidoscopic mix of people, building unusual ways of living in common heritage spaces. This was ROCK attitude, a project which took everyday spaces in different European historical cities, turning them into hotspots of collaborative culture making, deposits of temporary creative energies, political claims and battles. ROCK (Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities) is a European funded project under H2020 (GA 730280) on cultural heritage led regeneration of urban areas. It created a European framework of actions and reflection among 10 cities balancing the European sharing of values and the specificities of places, in their physical, social, political, cultural and memorial structure.

Urban regeneration is a key topic in Europe as cities are asked to propose efficient actions for the transition toward a more liveable system. The singularities and specificities of each city urges for a flexible and multi-scale approach able to face and combine a mix of cultural heritage, social and economic constraints, climatic and architectural specificities. In order to work toward the definition of site-specific and flexible methods, the ROCK project investigates how to move towards a Circular Urban System Model to be applied to historic centres. The paper presents the concept and the pilot actions undertaken in Bologna to build a site-specific approach enabling local stakeholders to collaborate toward the definition of action plans for the transition into sustainable systems of places. The project adopts a multi- level methodology to create links among key areas, resources, stakeholders and tools in order to re-circulate local values for their valorisation and enhancement. The paper describes the elaboration and the research-action-research initiatives as results of Bologna’s University area experimentations, deepening the relation among public spaces, local stakeholders and social exchanges. In particular, it presents the first experimentations of the project into this area: The Living Lab approach and co-design experiences.

Today digital technologies offer great opportunities in the field of Cultural Heritage (CH). After a general overview of the European policy documents on CH digitisation, the paper aims to reflect on tools, procedures and methodologies in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a new way of visualization, application and data collection towards accessing, understanding and safeguarding our historic built environment. The focus will be on two ongoing H2020 projects, INCEPTION and ROCK, selected to address the problem of CH digitisation and the access to the corresponding digitized resources in relation to historic buildings and urban districts. Therefore, they are presented as inspiring good practices for tackling this issue considering its impacts both at the architectural and urban scale. Stressing the potentials of enabling technologies, such as 3D laser surveys, environment and climate sensors, large crowd monitoring tools and CH analytic, they are also able to orient future research beyond 2020.

The rapidly growing use of digital technologies in urban contexts is generating a huge and increasing amount of data, providing real-time information about the urban environment and its inhabitants. The unprecedented availability of data allows us to not only improve advanced knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of urban dynamics, but also enact data evidence-based transformative processes and actions in the direction of smarter, more sustainable, resilient, and socially equitable cities. In this context, the literature on smart cities has recently expressed the need to more deeply involve urban visions and communities in the process of regeneration. This paper aims to analyze how big data can be useful in understanding the effectiveness of small pilot actions of regeneration and reactivation in valuable cultural heritage (CH) urban environments. Pilot actions were developed in the context of the European Union funded project &ldquo, ROCK&mdash, Regeneration and Optimization of cultural heritage in Creative and Knowledge cities&rdquo, (GA730280). The paper analyses data collected by the ROCK City People Flow tool, in different use and time conditions, in two central squares of Bologna (Italy), in order to rate event successes, spatial transformation effects, and regeneration tactics responses. Data confirm the complexity of interpreting phenomena in such contexts but also provide useful indications for future planning.

ROCK considers cultural heritage as an engine for sustainable growth in European cities. The approach proposed by the project implies dismantling the specialist idea of cultural heritage understood exclusively in terms of conservation. Cultural heritage - especially in its public and unused or underused spaces - is seen, instead, as an incremental and ever-changing repository of value that can drive both spatial and behavioral change. This change occurs in ROCK through incremental experiments based on a continuous exchange between local practices, administrative action and cognitive reflection, giving shape to a research-action-research methodology.