The EU-GUGLE demonstration district in Vienna is named Penzing or the 14th district. The smart Viennese gate to western Austria and to the Natura 2000 area – the Biosphärenpark Wienerwald – covers about 3374 hectares with an open area covering 60 %, including parts of the forest surrounding Vienna. The district has about 84 362 inhabitants, predominantly between 40 and 50 years of age.
The R2CITIES implementation site in Genoa is the social housing district of Lavatrici, developed between 1980 and 1990. Located in the west part of the city, the site consists of more than 500 dwellings. It is divided into four main blocks, each of which is composed of three different buildings – a high block, a lower block, and a centre block of apartments. The complex has one common area, ample parking and is served by a public bus line.
The Yakacik neighbourhood in the Kartal district in Istanbul is one of the selected pilot sites for the R2CITIES project. The implementation area is located between the Sea of Marmara to the south and the TEM motorways to the north. Despite being far from the city centre it is one of the best-connected parts of Istanbul with motorways, ferries, suburban railways and metro. The presence of the International Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Formula 1 track and Sabancı University contribute to the economic structure of the area, together with small-scale commerce and manufacturing.
A complete retrofit based on facade improvements, ICT and renewable energy systems is being implemented in the Cuatro de Marzo district, the demo site chosen for the R2CITIES project in Valladolid.
The neighborhood of Arlequin in Grenoble is a 1970s residential development of 1800 dwellings in a high-rise complex within a larger district called Villeneuve. The buildings range from 6 to 15 storeys and have a concrete structure with two kinds of façades: light pre-fabricated concrete modules and heavy modules. The neighborhood was born from an urban utopia, with an ambitious target of social mixture and an innovative architecture. The objective was to provide the inhabitants with a huge park and several public spaces in close vicinity to their dwellings.
The Lindängen neighborhood is located in the southern part of Malmö and has a population of approximately 6 000 inhabitants. The average income in the neighborhood is lower compared to the average income in Malmö, and the average unemployment rate is higher.
The Mogel neighbourhood in Eibar has been going through an integral renovation project since 2006. A lift installation and an energy-efficiency improvement to the residential buildings have been developed using diverse financing sources, including EU funding through the ZENN project.
Oslo participated in the ZENN project with the renovation works in the Økern nursing home, which was built in 1975 and contains 140 dwellings for senior citizens. The demonstration site is one of four buildings connected to each other, the rest of which were renovated in the period 2000-2010. The retrofitting plan has been completed and the tenants moved in in October 2014.
Lund (Sweden) is a medium-sized university city with a research-intensive industry. The town dates back a thousand years, but the number of inhabitants has grown largely during the last century and a great stock of the buildings from the 1960s and 1970s now needs retrofitting. Almost 90% of the heat demand in the city is supplied by district heating, and the hospital and some office buildings are connected to a district cooling network.
