Falling in love with a solution too soon is one of the biggest renovation mistakes
30-06-2026When Tecnalia talks about urban regeneration, it’s worth listening. As one of Europe’s leading applied research and technology centres, it has spent years working alongside cities to understand what makes neighbourhood transformation succeed or fail. In its contribution to the SHAPE II Learning Course, it shares why understanding a place before designing solutions can make all the difference.
Tecnalia starts by asking “What do we need to understand first?” and that question changes everything.
Before discussing solutions, the team builds a picture of the neighbourhood as a whole. They look at the buildings, but they also look at the people who live there, the local economy, existing community organisations, and the relationship between residents and local authorities. If you don’t understand how a neighbourhood works, it’s difficult to design interventions that will work for it.
Just as importantly, Tecnalia sees participation as something that shapes the plans from the beginning. Through a Local Task Force, residents, municipalities, businesses, researchers and community organisations work together to identify priorities and develop projects. The goal is to make better decisions by bringing different kinds of knowledge into the same conversation.
In Santana, the team realised that expectations needed to be managed before anything else. Residents had experienced previous renovation projects and naturally expected private building renovations to be included again. Tecnalia made the scope clear from the outset – this project focused on improving the neighbourhood as a whole. They also established a neighbourhood office where residents could ask questions, learn about the project and receive guidance, including on funding opportunities for their own initiatives. Clear communication was building trust.
In Ermua, trust was built in an entirely different way. Early participation was disappointing as some people were away, others were not interested, and some simply did not believe anything would change. A small group stayed involved and organised a mapathon, identifying everyday issues such as overgrown weeds and broken streetlights. When the municipality acted on those suggestions, residents saw that their input mattered. Sometimes confidence in a long-term regeneration project begins with solving small, visible problems.
Tecnalia also showed that not every discussion needs to happen around a meeting table. In one project, temporary changes transformed a small parking area into a pedestrian space for several months. Residents could experience the space differently before anyone committed to permanent construction. In another, a digital twin was used to test different scenarios for installing solar panels, allowing people to visualise options instead of imagining them. Both approaches had the same purpose of making decisions together with a clearer understanding of their consequences.
Tecnalia repeatedly warned against falling in love with a solution too early. A thorough diagnosis, genuine dialogue and continuous political support may not be the most visible parts of urban regeneration, but they are the ones that determine whether a project is rooted in the realities of a neighbourhood or simply imposed upon it.