Culture

Refill office is an agency for brokering temporary use of vacant buildings. Refill monitors vacant buildings and places in Ostrava and try to reach their owners and involve them in their project.

They offer active people help to find place for their social, cultural or other activities and start-ups.

Temporary use of empty spaces is a practice in urbanism aiming to revitalize empty spaces in urban areas, especially abandoned and decaying buildings.

Many spaces are left empty by owners because they currently do not have plans with the space, no capital for its renovation or further building, or cannot sell or rent the space at the price they want. Instead of waiting with an empty space, they can offer a temporary use of the space. This allows various community members to obtain the space for their social, cultural, or other needs, under often more favorable terms. The property owner often has less requirements than in the case of a normal lease: they do not have to maintain the spaces and can cancel the use at a much shorter notice. On the other hand, temporary users can use the space at no or symbolical cost, and often maintain the spaces themselves.

Such approach is perceived as win-win for both property owners and users and a wider city community who get new content in those spaces. Moreover, buildings are less prone to decay because they are in use. Furthermore, such use is intrinsically bottom-up driven by citizens and can demonstrate needs in a city which would otherwise be left undiscovered.