SLEEPING BEAUTY

The Sleeping Beauty project, funded by Horizon Europe, “awakens” neglected urban, peri-urban and rural spaces across Europe by bringing together Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and the values of the New European Bauhaus (NEB): sustainability, beauty and togetherness. It focuses on turning overlooked, underused or endangered places into vibrant, nature-rich environments that support well-being, strengthen local identities and foster a deeper, long-term connection between people, place and nature.

Reawakening Places with Nature and Design

Sleeping Beauty starts from a simple question: What if forgotten spaces could become catalysts for resilient, beautiful and inclusive communities? The project works with sites that already hold strong natural or cultural heritage, but have become invisible or marginal due to ageing, modernisation or purely functional use.

By integrating NBS and NEB, Sleeping Beauty regenerates these spaces through greener surfaces, restored habitats, creative reuse of existing structures and people-centred design. It combines spatial planning, nature conservation and artistic co-creation to deliver multifunctional public spaces that are ecologically sound, aesthetically compelling and socially meaningful.

Six pilot sites (Bolzano and Collegno in Italy, Fröseke in Sweden, Kozani in Greece, Riga in Latvia e Wroclaw in Poland) located in different climatic and socio-spatial contexts, act as experimental “laboratories”: They demonstrate how NEB–NBS solutions can be designed, tested, monitored and then replicated elsewhere in Europe. These pilots blend permanent interventions, blue–green infrastructure, cooling and de-paving measures for instance, with temporary and experimental installations, turning each site into an innovation playground for nature-positive transformation.

Results

Sleeping Beauty is designed to deliver concrete environmental, social and governance outcomes:

at least 25 integrated NEB–NBS solutions in six pilot sites, transforming underused public spaces into multifunctional, high-quality environments;
creation and restoration of substantial green and de-paved areas (over 32,000 m² in the short term and more than 50 hectares in the longer term), reducing urban heat island effects, lowering pollution exposure, improving accessibility and boosting perceived quality and well-being;
enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services, including more and better habitats, new spaces for outdoor education and recreation, growth of nature-based tourism and expansion of “green jobs”;
a deeper understanding of how to preserve and enhance biodiversity in multifunctional spaces under spatial constraints, balancing ecological performance, usability and aesthetics.

The project will also generate a robust knowledge and tools package for replication and scaling, including:

a co-creation toolbox and procedures for multi-stakeholder processes;
monitoring and impact assessment protocols and a dedicated NEB–NBS impact framework;
a NEB–NBS Practice/Compendium with blueprints, procurement guidance and participatory planning guidelines;
a digital toolbox for planners;
a policy recommendation package for a “new gold standard” of NEB-enhanced NBS.

Through at least 30 pilot success stories, a Community of Practice with over 100 active participants, new business models and extensive stakeholder engagement, Sleeping Beauty will help anchor a culture where sustainable, inclusive and beautiful spaces become the norm.

ISINNOVA’s role

ISINNOVA plays a central role in Sleeping Beauty, with a strong focus on knowledge management, capacity building and governance. ISINNOVA is responsible for setting up and animating the Sleeping Beauty Community of Practice (CoP) that connects all pilot sites. The aim is to:

help cities and partners benefit from EU cooperation in terms of inspiration, learning and planning capacity;
promote continuous cross-city collaboration across disciplines;
run an integrated digital platform for knowledge sharing and training;
make sure knowledge is “city-generated and expert-supported”.

ISINNOVA also coordinates the technical operation of the CoP platform to ensure that knowledge and interactions are stored and remain accessible beyond the project, contributing to replication and institutional memory. ISINNOVA also contributes to project management and impact assessment as strategic knowledge manager, co-curates stakeholder data under open science and GDPR principles, and supports monitoring and evaluation of co-creation, governance, socio-economic and cultural outcomes.

Partners

Project website

www.sleepingbeauty-project.eu.

Contact

Mario Gualdi.

*The project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme as part of the research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV-02-2).