On January 19th the seminar “COVID-19 and Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage: The Bakery, Praga District, Warsaw” took place, within the framework of the project “From burden to resource: industrial heritage in Central-Eastern Europe”, supported by the Visegrad Fund. More about the project: http://industrial-heritage.net/.The seminar gathered people not only from Europe, but from around the world, who recognized challenges and potential of industrial heritage. The discussion was focused on three questions:
- The service sector seems to be the most endangered part of the economy during a pandemic, while manufacturing remains strong. Will COVID-19 reverse deindustrialization and bring factories back to the large European cities?
- Our workscape is changing fast. Can buildings such as the Bakery be a golden middle way between offices and work from home (i.e., small offices for the local inhabitants)?
- What other local uses may be proposed for the Bakery (and similar sites) to provide a more robust local economy and improve community wellbeing?
Bakery case was presented by Katarzyna Sadowy with a foreword by Hanna Szemzo, while the discussion moderated by Dora Merai and Volodymyr Kulikov.