At the very beginning of PragaLAB's activity, we decided to test various forms of cooperation within the Made in Praga project idea with selected partners, in particular with micro or small entreprises, artists who work on their own, artistic groups or individuals planning to start a business or already operating a business in Praga in at least one from the following four areas: production, repairs, art, artisanal cafes.

From the very onset, PragaLAB team has been planning to hold workshops dedicated to heritage adaptive re-use—a new method of adaptation implemented with respect for both tangible and intangible heritage of the place, and for the goals of circular economy. For some time, we were looking for a topic which would allow us to identify the problems and which would serve as a good point of departure for new proposals— an alternative to both investing public funds in projects with no possibility of return and commercial investment with profit as the action’s main objective. Finally we decided to focus and search for new models of adaptive reuse of the old Bakery as a case study.

OpenHeritage identifies and tests the best practices of adaptive heritage re-use in Europe. Drawing on the observations and results, the project will develop inclusive governance and management models for marginalized, non-touristic heritage sites and tests them in selected Cooperative Heritage Labs over Europe. It works with communities, local businesses, local and municipal administration, tries out new forms of engagement and uses crowdfunding and crowd sourcing mechanisms to create active heritage communities.