On Monday 27 February 2012, a presentation was given on the pilot tasks as part of the European Second Chance project concerning the revitalisation of the Rog former factory complex.

The presentation was accompanied by a lecture and talks with Lia Ghilardi, an internationally-known expert in the fields of place mapping and strategic cultural planning projects.

In her lecture, Lia Ghilardi highlighted the reasons why it is necessary in current conditions for cities to think more creatively about how to mobilise their unique cultural assets and relationships to urban regeneration. Starting out from selected recent development projects in European cities, she showcased a new approach which she named ‘urban and cultural DNA mapping’. The lecture concluded with thoughts on what kinds of strategies are needed for integrated and sustainable solutions to urban regeneration problems.

The lecture was followed by a series of four short talks in which Lia Ghilardi discussed the problem of urban regeneration in the light of the newly-emerging Rog Centre. The discussions were also participated in by Dr Uroš Grilc, Head of the City of Ljubljana’s Culture Department; Miran Gajšek MA, Head of the City of Ljubljana’s Spatial Management Department; Jurij Bavdaž MA, Social co-operative, Rog factory; Bertram Schultze, architect and executive director for commercial conversion of the Spinnerei (Leipzig) and Auf AEG (Nuremberg) former factories. The talks were followed by open discussions with the audience.

There is further information available on the Second Chance website.