Interdisciplinary Centre for Transformative Urban Regeneration

How can cities and regions be adapted to demographic, socio-economic, ecological and social changes? How can a deep transformation to sustainability in the existing building stock succeed? What opportunities does the revitalisation of small and medium-sized cities offer for avoiding new construction and the associated use of resources in the agglomeration areas, as well as for preserving the quality of life and architectural heritage locally? How can transformation processes succeed in cities with limited transformative capacities and in regions affected by structural change?

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Transformative Urban Regeneration (IZS) in Görlitz deals with these questions. The centre pursues a transdisciplinary approach in which the identification of research needs, the production of knowledge, the pilot application of new solutions as well as reflection and further development take place in cooperation with stakeholders in urban and regional development. The interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is complemented by transfer activities in the region as well as on a national and international level. The Europastadt/European City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec serves as a permanent real-world laboratory. One focus of the centre's international networking is the Central and Eastern European region.

The IZS is a joint research facility of the IOER and the International Institute (IHI) Zittau of Technische Universität Dresden. Other partners are the City of Görlitz with the municipal housing company KommWohnen and the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz. The location of Görlitz offers us an exciting research environment with specific challenges and potentials of urban transformation, among other things due to the extensive historical building stock in the city, the shrunken urban population, the structural change since 1990 as well as current efforts to achieve climate-neutral urban development by 2030. The IZS emerged in 2014 from the Görlitz Kompetenzzentrum Revitalisierender Städtebau.

Continue to the IZS website