During the last 25 years, more than three-quarters of the valuable protected historical monument buildings in Görlitz have been refurbished. However, massive losses of the population have led to vacancies, that can't be compensated, even by the predicted population growth.
In some districts grievances in the urban development and social segregation are still continuing. This is why a new and more valuable use in the areas of living, trading, services and commerces is necessary, for which certainly a demand exists.
However, the realisation of those renewals can hardly be realised within the old floor plans of the buildings without substantial changes. Thereby is the main goal of the urban development to keep the town in its size and structure.
By using an "urban development- matrix", easily applicable guidelines have been prepared, to create a balance between the housing- and building stock and the protected historic monuments. New tenant clientele and new usages will be attracted by allowing otherwise usages.
Due to the "Matrix", decisions shall be supported and more transparent, concerning questions like to what extent the structure of buildings can be changed and what kind of usages can be possible in protected historic monuments.
The aim of the project was to support the trial phase of the "urban development - Matrix" by evaluating the methods and usages during the decision making process. The question should be answered as to whether the "urban development - Matrix" is a suitable tool to handle potential conflicts between the revitalization of city centres and the protection of historical monuments.
In the course of a Germany-wide research, it became apparent that there are hardly any comparable approaches, which underlines the innovative character of the Urban transformation Matrix.
The matrix was intensively discussed both in the German-speaking professional public (Denksalons Ökologischer und revitalisierender Stadtumbau 2018 on the topic of "Urban transformation in the field of tension in between revitalization and protection of historical monument" on 22 and 23 September 2017 in Görlitz) and on site (German-Polish Europastadt-Gespräch on the Urban Transformation Matrix on 1 June 2017 in Görlitz).
Two lectures (spa-ce.net Network Conference 2017 on 14 September 2017 in Sofia and the annual conference of the Working Group Urban Renewal on 22 June 2018 in Kaiserslautern) resulted in a publication in German language (Jahrbuch Stadterneuerung 2020: Stadterneuerung in Klein- und Mittelstädten, Springer) and English language (volume "The Role of Public Sector in Local Economic and Territorial Development", Springer).
