Date
09/07/2025

Three teachers and researchers from the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB), Daniel Raposo, Domingues Santos and João Neves, are the authors of the Strategic Plan for Bauhaus Villages EUROACE (2023-2030), which was publicly presented on July 3, 2025, in Arronches.

This is more than a plan, it’s a call to action. It presents a more participatory, creative and sustainable development model, combating depopulation and promoting social cohesion and innovation, which aims to transform the rural territory of the EUROACE euro-region (Centro and Alentejo regions in Portugal and Extremadura in Spain), linking the urban to the rural, the environment to the community. The proposal will serve as the basis for applications to the 8th Call for Proposals of the Interreg POCTEP Program, within the scope of cross-border cooperation in non-urban areas.

Both territories covered include 105 Spanish municipalities and four Portuguese municipalities, with around 365,000 inhabitants in Spain and 28,000 in Portugal. This is a new way of transforming this cross-border territory into a more sustainable, liveable and attractive space.

The plan follows the three principles of the New European Bauhaus – Sustainability, Aesthetics and Inclusion – and is in line with the EU’s objective of bringing citizens closer to the territory. The EUROACE Bauhaus Villages will function as pilot projects, where innovative and sustainable solutions will be tested in a network with other municipalities.

The three key areas of the strategies are:

• Aesthetics: activating a new experience and enjoyment of place and integrating stakeholders in a process of positive transformation of territories;
• Sustainability: Transforming linear processes into circular ones, promoting the restoration and expansion of built and natural landscapes;
• Inclusion: Strengthening social inclusion, fostering multicultural dialogue, a sense of territorial cohesion and belonging, transforming accessibility and creating networks and synergies between people and communities.

The presentation event was attended by representatives of Portuguese and Spanish entities, including João Carlos Crespo, Mayor of Arronches; António Ceia da Silva, President of CCDR Alentejo, I.P.; Alexandra Rodrigues, Vice-President of CCDR Centro, I.P. María Ángeles Muriel, Director General of Rural Development at the Junta de Extremadura; Maria Rosa Ramos Cotrina, Director General of Autonomous Financing and European Funds at the Junta de Extremadura; and Belén Muñoz Briongos, Managing Authority of the Interreg POCTEP 2021-2027 Program. The presentation was led by professors João Neves and Daniel Raposo.

The plan is the result of a participatory process with local and regional contributions, and proposes concrete territorial regeneration projects. It includes areas such as housing, energy, heritage, tourism, mobility, well-being and the social economy, always with the vision of creating more sustainable, beautiful and inclusive villages.