Renovation, transformation, and renewal of church buildings and religious heritage in the EU

This community-led NEB Lab project seeks to serve as an open forum on how historic places of worship can contribute to make European neighbourhoods more beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive for all.

The project is led by three official NEB partners – FRH, COMECE and Katholische Privat-Universität Linz – and supported by 30 institutional and individual contributors. 

We believe that religious buildings can be a motor for social cohesion, green transition, and sustainable local development in neighbourhoods across Europe. But this needs a cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach, involving all relevant stakeholders across sectors that can support cultural religious heritage.

We aim to produce a blueprint for adaptive reuse of religious heritage sites (including ethical and aesthetic responsibilities in transformation processes), Policy recommendations for policymakers, professionals and managers/owners of sites.

Our goals are grouped into the three fundamental aspects of the NEB:

Beautiful: 

• Recognising historic religious sites as open public sites, that preserve the cultural memories of neighbourhood and its community.
• Highlighting the exceptional beauty of historic religious heritage sites, as the largest museum in Europe, more than 500,000 buildings, many of which encompass wonderful works of art, and are architectural masterpieces.  

Sustainable: 

• Analysing adaptive reuse or additional uses and ensuring they are a preferred alternative to demolitions (“The most sustainable building is the one that is already built”, Carl Elefante)
• Ensuring the urban planning and natural surrounding (gardens, forests, etc.) of religious buildings are accessible, well-maintained and restored if necessary.
• Ensuring renewable energy and insulation actions are taken in religious heritage sites
• Ensuring religious heritage sites are economically sustainable, by exploring and proposing suitable funding mechanisms for site managers and owners . 

Inclusive:

• Raising awareness of the diversity of religious heritage, from ancient basilicas to modernist buildings from the 20th century and onwards.
• Ensuring a Europe-wide exchange between key stakeholders on the future of these buildings, by involving them in the development of a toolkit and recommendations.

Project milestones

• Spring 2026 | Opening Workshop
• Spring 2026 | Presentation at the New European Bauhaus Festival 2026
• 2026 and ongoing| Initiate trans-disciplinary research on “values” to identify key policy discussions regarding religious heritage sites, key policy recommendations
• 2026 | High-level dialogue event with policy makers
• 2026-2027 | Online events with key stakeholders in countries/regions
• 2026-2028 | Public workshops and conferences, and public-scientific training programs
• 2028 | Concluding congress with the suggestion of a set of European guidelines

How can entities or individuals participate in the project

The project is open to all members of the New European Bauhaus Community, as well as practitioners in the heritage sector; academics and researchers in heritage and related fields; Dioceses, local parishes and Bishops’ Conferences; architects, engineers, energy and climate technologists, and other experts in innovative, sustainable technologies in the construction sector; local communities, political municipalities and local stakeholder with or without representation; members of the general public interested in the topics addressed by the NEB Lab; organisations or individuals interested in becoming an official member of the project can contact the coordinators expressing their interest and how their expertise can contribute to our goals.

List of project coordinators and contributors

Coordinators

• FRH - Future for Religious Heritage (Belgium)
• COMECE - Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (Belgium)
• Catholic Private University of Linz (Austria)

Contact

Jordi Mallarach (FRH) - %20infofrh-europe [dot] org (info[at]frh-europe[dot]org)

Related information

The NEB Lab