Designers to transform urban rooftops

Rooftops make up to 35 per cent of Europe’s urban landscape. Creating cultural venues and community spaces in these underused spaces can help tackle the challenges posed by environmental change and economic inequality.

Jak Spencer, Partner at Urban Scale Interventions, said: “It’s never been more important to have public spaces that can support healthy, social lives. Belfast has a rich and diverse urban landscape. This grant will help us to explore how our underutilised rooftops can be better used for social, cultural and climate activities, while connecting us with other cultural cities across Europe”.

To kick off the project, Urban Scale Interventions will map Belfast’s rooftops to understand what is currently available in the city.

Urban Scale Interventions is the first Northern Ireland partner to get funding since 2017. It has partnered with eight cultural and municipal organisations across Europe to form the European Creative Rooftop Network. Partners span Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Chemnitz, Faro, Gothenburg, Nicosia and Rotterdam.

Creative Europe is the EU’s funding programme to support the creative and cultural sectors. British Council Northern Ireland hosts the Creative Europe Desk in Northern Ireland.

Creative Europe is awarding €1.75 million (£1.6 million) to 22 UK organisations from all four UK nations in its 2020 Cooperation Projects. Cooperation Projects are joint cultural initiatives with European countries, ranging from performing arts to heritage and music.

Rosie Le Garsmeur, British Council Northern Ireland, said: “I’m excited to see how Urban Scale Innovations will explore the potential in towns and cities for more creative, social uses. It’s wonderful to see Belfast connecting with fellow diverse cities like Barcelona and Rotterdam through this project.”

This year’s funding call created UK partnerships with 29 of the 40 other countries which take part in Creative Europe. This shows how UK cultural, creative and heritage organisations continue to value and be valued when collaborating with European counterparts.

In the Creative Europe programme from 2014-20 UK organisations benefitted from a total of €23,800,000 (£21,600,000) funding.

From next year UK organisations can join cross-border Cooperation Projects as ‘associate partners’, alongside countries such as Canada and Japan.

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