Abstract
This paper addresses the conference theme “Convergence. Architecture as a Framework for Collaboration and Trust” by examining how post-industrial legacy shapes relations between people, place and history. Inherited structures and spatial patterns strengthen identity and support regeneration grounded in local experience. In a town shaped by two centuries of coal mining, architecture embodies labor, resilience and belonging. Material presence conveys symbolic depth, while memory and everyday practices sustain continuity in landscapes of change. Living in Anina, together with its industrial landmarks, creates opportunities for reconnection and participation. Industrial heritage provides a framework for collaboration and trust, enabling residents, civic groups, and institutions to converge around shared values and explore new directions. Through community involvement and sustained care for place, environments once defined by work evolve into spaces for reinterpretation across past, present and future. Industrial heritage thus emerges as an active identity resource, capable of guiding participatory regeneration, inspiring collective action and preserving cultural meaning.