To achieve decent and affordable housing for all, urban and rural regeneration must prioritize housing-related objectives, such as improving housing conditions and upgrading public facilities and infrastructure in neighborhoods. Special emphasis should be placed on ensuring access to basic services (e.g., water and sanitation).

Waterfronts—often central to a city’s historical development and prosperity—offer significant potential for transformation. Revitalisation should focus on creating vibrant, inclusive, and publicly accessible spaces that reconnect communities with the water, while celebrating cultural heritage and enhancing ecological resilience.

Aligned with SDG 11.4, conservation of cultural and nature heritage should be strengthened in urban regeneration practices. This aims to not only create aesthetically enriching environments, but also to shape and reinforce the identity of the place. Sustainability means safeguarding both heritage and ecosystems for future generations. We advocate integrating heritage perspectives into all regeneration projects, ensuring they respect historical narratives and ecological balance.

Rural revitalisation is critical to improving rural residents’ quality of life and strengthening urban-rural connections. Often lagging in modernisation, rural areas urgently require upgraded facilities, including public spaces, renovated housing, enhanced services (e.g., healthcare, education), and community centers for local communities, as well as hospitability facilities for rural visitors. Regeneration should also celebrate intangible heritage—such as spaces for local performances, literature, and customs—while fostering new economies like temporary coworking hubs for urban professionals or small-to-medium enterprise clusters.

The application of emerging technologies, such as digital twins and AI, can significantly enhance the regeneration process and deliver positive outcomes. In particular, for places and communities that have been left behind, smart technologies like autonomous public transportation can offer innovative solutions to improve livelihoods. In heritage-related regeneration, digital twins can document historical elements and support the restoration process. Meanwhile, in dense urban areas, the integration of advanced technologies can help with design and shorten construction periods and improve efficiency.

As industries are rapidly restructuring, converting industrial land for non-industrial uses has become a trend in post-industrial cities. Polluted industrial sites should be remediated before regeneration begins. We advocate for conserving and reusing existing industrial infrastructure (e.g., transforming factories into cultural hubs) rather than complete demolition. Through design and innovation, these structures can adapt to new functions, promoting sustainable resource use and preserving their historical character.

Large-scale regeneration projects, such as redevelopment of transportation hubs, act as engines for urban and economic development due to their transformative scale and impact. These initiatives offer unique opportunities to catalyse growth, reshape urban environments, and integrate mixed-use spaces (e.g., combining housing, commerce, and culture). Beyond economic benefits, projects must prioritize high-quality public spaces and inclusive cultural facilities to serve all citizens equitably.

To accelerate progress toward carbon neutrality, we seek to align the urban regeneration agenda with climate mitigation goals by improving building efficiency, promoting the use of renewable energy and distributed energy systems, integrating net-zero-ready infrastructure, retrofitting existing built environments with low-impact approaches, and reducing emissions associated with urban regeneration.

Before formal redevelopment begins, adaptive reuse of buildings/sites for temporary or informal purposes (e.g., pop-up galleries, creative studios) can attract artists and innovators, sparking creativity and community engagement. The bottom-up practices are vital to fostering inclusive and sustainable urban transformation.