@inproceedings{01JNJT4RV77ZV8ZD3HCWRSKN5Z,
  abstract     = {{Positive energy districts (PEDs) are key tools to deliver the European Green Deal and climate targets by 2030. As districts with annual net zero energy import and net zero CO2 emission, and working towards an annual local surplus production of renewable energy, PEDs are concrete building blocks for a sustainable future for our cities. However, PEDs are often introverted islands in cities and the challenge is how to integrate them into their existing contexts creating climate-neutral, resilient and liveable neighbourhoods. Visions, plans, projects, and solutions for PEDs exist, but defining concrete, innovative, inclusive, and shared strategies for existing urban structures and societies, implementing and replicating them, remains in many cases the next urgent task.

In order to address this challenge, the PED4ALL project (JPI Urban Europe, 2023-2025) brings together experts and PED stakeholders from Brussels (Belgium), Rome (Italy), and Istanbul (Turkey). The focus of the project is to develop and apply a shared co-production methodology to define a set of strategies (energy, policy and regulatory, governance and social, spatial, and design strategies) for urban transition and innovation for existing, complex urban neighbourhoods and to test and replicate them.

In Brussels, the neighbourhood of Cureghem is selected as the project’s case study. PED4ALL researches how the energy transition dynamics resulting from the sustainable redevelopment of the (privately managed) Abattoir site can be broadened to the culturally diverse and socio-economic vulnerable neighbourhood. Additionally to ‘expert’ desktop research (documenting different initiatives and best practices characterized by innovation in energy infrastructures, and energy-related social and environmental or urban design solutions), energy grassroots knowledge is incorporated. By cooperating with economic and socio-cultural organization that are already active in the neighbourhood, tools and strategies are developed to define the everyday reality, opportunities and challenges for the energy transition in Cureghem. Through a series of workshops, events and other interactions, the project then leverages this heterogeneous knowledge to co-create multiple, concrete and replicable, adaptable PED strategies, and to define innovative pathways for PED development specifically adapted to existing, complex urban neighbourhoods such as Cureghem.

This paper reflects on the participatory research tools and strategies that are currently being co-developed in the PED4ALL project (e.g. to align project ambitions, come to a shared understanding of the PED concept, gain insight on local practices and reflect on their energy transition potentiality, and co-design strategies), with an emphasis on the co-creation of just PED strategies for the Curegehem neighbourhood.}},
  author       = {{Shllaku, Laura and Bruggeman, Dieter and Vanin, Fabio}},
  booktitle    = {{OpenLab.brussels : conference creating knowledge through participatory research, Proceedings}},
  keywords     = {{Positive Energy Districts (PEDs),energy justice,participatory action research,knowledge co-production,urban transformative capacity,Cureghem}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Brussels, Belgium}},
  pages        = {{10}},
  title        = {{Co-producing just energy transition pathways for Cureghem : preliminary insights from the PED4ALL project on ped development in complex urban neighborhoods}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}