Approach

Many post industrial cities are paralyzed by their large scale land vacancies. Planned around industries that no longer exist, their sizes far exceed the resources available to them today.  Coupled with their economically and politically complex climates, the likelihood of conventional redevelopment such as buildings, housing developments and shopping venues changing this downward momentum is small.  For post industrial cities, managing their vacant landscapes is the reality.

terrainsvagues.org was established as an independent private initiative;  a thinktank escorting vacant urban landscapes during their repositioning.  Founded with the belief that cultural concepts can succeed where conventional approaches have not, terrainsvagues incubates vacancy strategies into cultural concepts able to underpin larger scale private investment.  Through creative management of vacant land and space, we inspire new discussion about its future potential – elevating vacancy management from what is a stop gap measure into a place’s largest opportunity for reinvention.