NEB Open Day in Elefsina: advancing heritage-led Urban Transformation

The Open NEB Day brought together in Elefsina, Greece, policymakers, researchers and practitioners, exploring how cultural heritage can be reactivated through Sustainability, Inclusion and Aesthetics, moving from principles to operational practices. Andrea Balestrini moderated the Sustainability Roundtable where Valentina Galiulo could share LAND’s approach to regeneration as highlited within the HeritACT project.

Discussions emphasised the need to move beyond building-centred approaches towards systemic, city-scale perspectives, integrating social life-cycle frameworks alongside environmental assessments to better capture social value, community practices and long-term impacts.

Inclusion emerged as a core structural condition, requiring active participation throughout all project phases and attention to accessibility, language, memory and everyday life. Arts and creative practices were recognised as key tools for expressing intangible heritage and collective values. Aesthetics, meanwhile, was framed as a methodological driver for imagination, co-creation and alternative narratives, with growing interest in assessing experiential and emotional impacts.

Across all sessions, participants shared a clear conclusion: early-stage decisions and participatory governance are decisive. Through three years of collaboration, HeritACT has generated concrete added value for the European technical and scientific community, offering practical insights into how NEB values can be meaningfully integrated into real heritage contexts.

During the event, LAND speakers’ contribution highlighted how sustainability, innovation, inclusion and beauty are not optional principles, but essential drivers for the design and activation of public spaces through nature-based solutions.