Milan, 6 July 2026 – The final conference of the European project PED4ALL – Positive Energy Districts for All brought together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and community organisations to reflect on the future of neighbourhood energy transitions.
Hosted at the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan, the conference explored how Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) can be developed in existing urban neighbourhoods such as Cureghem in Brussels, Ostiense in Rome and Kartal in Istanbul. These neighbourhoods are characterised by ageing building stock, social diversity, complex governance challenges and, in the case of Istanbul, significant seismic risk. The programme brought together researchers and practitioners from across Europe, with sessions led by Marco Ranzato, Fabio Vanin and Hatice Sozer, and contributions from Fabio Deotto, Lorenzo Raimondo De Vidovich, Davide Testa, Cristina Renzoni, Marco Voltini, Ilaria Montella and Stefano Converso, alongside members of the PED4ALL consortium.
Opening the event, writer and journalist Fabio Deotto invited participants to rethink the relationship between communities and urban transformation. Referring to the work of anthropologist Robert Macfarlane, he described territory as “a work of art produced through dialogue” and communities as “the artists holding the brush.” Drawing on examples ranging from the relocation of the Swedish city of Kiruna to the experiences of the Sámi people in northern Scandinavia, Deotto argued that transitions cannot simply be implemented in places; they must be shaped together with the communities that inhabit them. Participation alone, he suggested, is not enough if communities remain objects rather than subjects of change.
This message resonated strongly throughout the conference. In Who Drives Energy Transitions?, speakers challenged the “spectacularisation” of Positive Energy Districts as transformative flagship projects capable of solving neighbourhood challenges on their own. Instead, they argued that PEDs should be understood as long-term and incremental processes, deeply shaped by geographical and social differences. The discussion highlighted the crucial role of third-sector organisations and intermediaries, whose embedded position in neighbourhoods often makes them essential actors in building trust, connecting different stakeholders and supporting collective action. Drawing on ideas of co-governance and the urban commons, participants also explored new forms of collaboration that move beyond traditional public-private arrangements towards shared responsibility for neighbourhood transitions.
The session Designing Spaces for Inclusive Energy Transitions turned attention to the spatial dimension of change. Speakers called for a relational approach to design and planning, questioning whether the neighbourhood itself is always the most appropriate scale for intervention and emphasising instead the plurality of spaces and scales through which transitions unfold. Everyday infrastructures and shared spaces were highlighted as important relational anchors that can help shift the focus from individual action towards collective forms of engagement. Participants also reflected critically on concepts such as proximity and energy communities, recognising that the ways people gather and collaborate vary across places and contexts.
Finally, Wired for Tomorrow: Tech Transforming Neighbourhoods explored how urban morphology and decentralised energy systems shape the possibilities for local energy transitions. Rather than waiting for large-scale transformations, speakers emphasised the importance of immediate experimentation and learning by doing. Technological interventions and small demonstrations can make future energy scenarios tangible, raise awareness and influence everyday practices, showing how technology can become a tool not only for optimising energy systems but also for imagining and testing new ways of living together.
These messages resonated strongly with the findings of PED4ALL. Over the past three years, the project has shown that neighbourhood transitions are incremental, negotiated and deeply rooted in local realities. In dense, already inhabited neighbourhoods, progress depends less on achieving predefined technical targets and more on building trust, collective capacity and long-term partnerships. PED strategies often functioned not only as implementation plans but as tools for dialogue, bringing together residents, municipalities, technical experts and community organisations around shared visions for the future.
A central lesson emerging from the project is that energy cannot be treated as a standalone issue. The most promising pathways emerged when energy became part of a broader neighbourhood agenda connected to housing, affordability, wellbeing and everyday life. As the conference concluded, one message stood out: the future of Positive Energy Districts lies not only in technological innovation, but in our collective ability to design transitions with communities, rather than for them.
