The first partner meeting and conference of the project "New Ideas for Old Buildings", in which one of the partners is Expeditio, was held on 28-30 September 2015 in the Youth Centre in the hostel Nova Gorica, Slovenia. The reason is the fact that in European cities, there are a lot of abandoned public buildings, especially in medium and small towns that are often faced with the economy in decline and reduced number of population. It often happens that buildings in public ownership remain abandoned, which represents multiplied loss for the city.
Seven small and medium sized European towns from the Baltic to the Balkans,which are facing the common problems of economic and social decline and are motivated to find efficient and democratic solutions for revitalising their towns and enhancing the quality of life of their inhabitants are dealing with this problems through the project "New ideas for old buildings". The project aims to increase involvement of citizens in decision-making of public property management and sustainable urban development and to identify concrete solutions to better utilize public property in partner cities. Through the exchange of good practice, experience and expertise of involved municipalities and partner NGOs, the goal is to develop a long-term experience-based platform for public property management in medium and small European towns.
The next conference is planned for Niksic in November 2015.