Abstract:

Contemporary Bulgarian cities face complex issues: some inherited from the past, others – raised during the Transition and pre-accession to the EU. The EU accession in 2007 brought various opportunities to the national planning system as new tools, access to financial resources but also obligations and explicit rules. Since 2011, due to the requirements of the European Regional Development Fund and during the 2014-2020 period, the Integrated Plans for Urban Regeneration and Development (IPURD) have been introduced as a tool for the sustainable and permanent overcoming of economic, environmental, and social problems in urban areas. As a new planning instrument, the IPURD was perceived as a chance to open the planning system and to modernize the planning process. It required a rethinking of planning concepts and incremental changes within the planning system, options for fine-tuning and effective communication, participation, consultation, prioritization, and risk management. At the same time, the elaboration of this new planning tool was a serious challenge to the professional capacities, inclusive urban renewal processes and its sensitivity to the variety of actors, interests, and driving forces. The 2021-2027 planning process promotes integrated territorial investments as a tool for sustainable urban development as part of the municipal programming thus covering the urban, per-urban, and nonurbanized areas.

The paper presents the teaching module “Urban Regeneration” delivered since 2005 within the BSc program in Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, UACEG – a compulsory pack of lectures, seminars, and project work during the seventh semester. A discussion is opened on the educational aims, the methodological approach and the contents of the module in the framework of the evolving planning system, the changing agendas, and territorial scopes to be addressed, the methodological approaches integrated and the interdisciplinary planning environment and the recognition of the urban planning profession in Bulgaria. An analysis is provided of the interrelations and continuity of knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired during the study at the BSc in Urbanism, the Urban Regeneration module, Ph.D. thesis, MSc curricula in planning, and the employment opportunities and competitiveness of the graduates. Conclusions are drawn about the mechanisms that adapt the acquired knowledge to the changing planning system, and provide and rediscover links between theory and practice, planning, and other areas of professional expertise and trans-disciplinary fields.

Keywords:

Urban regeneration, planning education, integrated planning.