Demonstrating a model of collaborative pre-fabricated reinvention of modernist districts into cozy living environments

The SOFTacademy project seeks to accelerate neighbourhood level circular renovation of large, multi-owner apartment buildings.

To create a truly integrated, dense and diverse urban ecology, this approach to renovation considers not only resource efficiency, but also environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Using a hardware and software approach, the project demonstrates how residents’ initiatives in renovation can boost the re-design of a whole neighbourhood, including the spaces between buildings. 

In this way, the project is developing a collaborative innovation model for urban governments to accelerate private renovation by improving overall urban liveability, creating a better local micro-climate, increasing biodiversity, accommodating community functions, changing the scale of buildings, and creating a ‘cosier’ living environment where people can meet and relax, and feel they belong. The intervention logic and digital tools developed as part of the solution are transferable to any mass-produced, monofunctional apartment building district that needs not just renovation but also an improved sense of place and identity.