New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Reconnecting with nature

Email user
nermina.suljevic@sarajevo.ba

Basic information
Initiative title
G4A

Full initiative Title
Garden for ALL

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
G4A is the one multidisciplinary masterpiece in which each citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina can enjoy. Creation of unique urban Garden in 2023 in front of the space for high schools for children with disabilities will provide the platform for education, intergenerational exchange of knowledge and cooperation between children and elderly, and it is meant to be a role model for other local communities – in the meaning that green spaces can be put in functional use.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
National

Where was your intiative implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Bosnia and Herzegovina

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Sarajevo

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
Yes

Which fund(s)?
Horizon2020 / Horizon Europe

Here you can provide more details about the name of the specific programme, strand/action line as relevant, and the year
The CONNECTING NATURE project covered only small portion of the implementation, in total amount of app 6.000 EUR. Connecting Nature project is funded by Horizon 2020 programme.

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): The City of Sarajevo
  Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local)
  First name of representative: Nermina
  Last name of representative: Suljević
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Function: Head of Department for Sustainable Development
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Hamdije Kreševljakovića 3
  Town: Sarajevo
  Postal code: 71 000
  Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Direct Tel: +387 33 407-964
  E-mail: nermina.suljevic@sarajevo.ba
  Website: https://www.sarajevo.ba/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.facebook.com/gradnainternetu/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #GradSarajevo #CityofSarajevo
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Social Media

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
G4A is the one multidisciplinary masterpiece in which each citizen of Bosnia can enjoy.

Well, Sarajevo has many green public spaces which are not well used for education and well-being. Even though the time of COVID19 pandemic in years before brought increased number of personal gardens in front of houses, buildings, in various public green spaces, it also showed the need to educate people how these spaces can be used in best interest of citizens as well as in biodiversity of the city. Creation of unique urban Garden in 2023 in front of the space for high schools for children with disabilities will provide the platform for education, intergenerational exchange of knowledge and cooperation between children and elderly, and it is meant to be a role model for other local communities – in the meaning that green spaces can be put in functional use.
Therefore, it will be accessible for marginalized groups, persons with disabilities, elderly people, children, and other citizens. The concept is that we just established (the initial stage of maturity) and designed the Urban Garden in the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Sarajevo. Every Monday (or some other day in the week) will be declared as the Urban Garden day, in which will be organize different kind of workshops in the Garden for all. Apart from that, every citizen will have the opportunity to come, rest and work in the Urban Garden. Multidisciplinary plans and programs will be developed for the G4A in the next period with educational, upbringing and functional tasks with the main importance. This garden for all is made of sensor, motorical elements and the space for gardening. It has multidisciplinary approach which is based on: sustainability, inclusion and cultural and age diversity and aesthetic. Transformations will be obvious in the sense of connecting with nature, regaining the sense of belonging in the society, giving the priority to those who need it the most and the sustainable and in the long run.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
Education

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Inclusion

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Nature

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Well-being

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Cultural connectivity

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The G4A is open to all citizens and sustainable because once the Urban Garden is set near the school place and will maintain the tradition to have one day a week ''Urban Garden Day'' when all citizens can come and work in the garden. Also, it will be proposed to the Centers of Healthy aging to incorporate Urban Garden Day in their regular program as well. Multidisciplinary plans and programs will be developed for the G4A in the next period with educational, upbringing and functional tasks with the main importance. Once all target group see the benefits of working in the garden and when they reap the first result of their work it is expected to spread this initiative and to start urban gardens in other location.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
As for the cultural aspect, it can be a platform for different cultural events, activities, meetings etc.
Different target groups can use this space for different type of activities. One of our objectives is to help people reconnect with nature, move away from different electronic devices and find peace and healing in such space. Research is discovering all the different ways that nature benefits our well-being, health, and relationships. Through reconnecting with nature, positive emotions are being created. Positive emotions have beneficial effects upon social processes, too—like increasing trust, cooperation, and closeness with others. Since viewing nature appears to trigger positive emotions, it follows that nature likely has favorable effects on our social well-being.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
Rolling out the garden infrastructure, developing open access and ensuring that the use of multidimensional spectrum is strategic and well managed through the programs, aims to make garden infrastructure available to all.
Inclusion is ensuring that no one is left behind, therefore requires that this garden is Available to all , Affordable because it is free to use and Accessible even to elderly people and marginalized groups, children and people with disabilities. It is necessary to mention that G4A also aims to improve equity in the meaning that it is very much about creating equitable place such is the garden.
Marginalized groups and people with disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are experiencing problems regarding all the aspects of life as well as accessibility. They must enjoy all the human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina like a freedom to have open and accessible spaces. The number of accessibility problems must be communicated within partnership with government authorities, CSO, private and public sectors, donors, all the aspects that we are working on. The G4A will be the driver of changes in society inclusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Accessibility is not only about human rights. It is an opportunity for all stakeholders and actors to embrace all visitors and enhance their well-being. Persons with disabilities are participating more and more frequently in open activities as a result of their growing level of social integration. However, there remain many impediments and barriers of all kinds that hinder access to educational and other services. Accessibility is not a requirement solely and exclusively for persons with disabilities, it is also a right for elderly people, children, women and all the citizens.
We find that G4A will improve the life of all of our citizens and that conceptual line of garden will result with approached integration of all.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
The concept is based on participatory democracy where importance is shown through the citizens of having a say their vision and ideas. Participation is at the core of democracies around the world, as well as in the case of our garden. We ensured that citizens are afforded an opportunity to directly participate, and to be involved in the decisions that affect their lives.

The initiative has multiple benefits for all actors involved in the creation of the garden. Citizens who were involved from the very beginning in creating the initiative have a special connotation in participatory access. During the creation of the idea, an urban lab were created. Workshops in urban garden involved citizens, different Civil Society Organizations, academia and other institutions of importance, in order to share vision, ideas about creating the public space. Through the urban lab, citizens gave opinions, and experts based on this created the first concept of design. This concept of design was shared with the public where the citizens voted for the best solution. After participation of all, the conceptual solution has been finalized. This reflects the benefits of engaging the civil society organizations, and citizens in making the G4A.
The video of this actions is attached.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
Through the G4A initiative we involved different stakeholders at various levels. In local level we engaged government institutions and civil society organisations, academic institutions in the urban lab workshops, and in the national one of the key partners was Serda - the national agency for development. Our initiative through the technicall tenders of garden elements was supported by the UNDP, and in the European level Zurich city by giving the participatory connotation in the garden design.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
Communication and interaction of all stakeholders is explained in previous sections and was at a high level, which proves that participatory democracy is of great importance to us. The disciplines involved here are psychology, art, health, healing, nature, connection with nature, andragogy and other. In particular, the so-called Sarajevo process and methodology- called connection with nature have been developed. Many workshops were realized and the technique and structure were on memory work and body mapping. We used body mapping as the process of calculating body maps; inspiring drawing, painting and other art-based techniques to visually represent people's lives, their bodies and the world they live in the nature. On another side, through the memory work citizens used their photographs to vision their past through the future of nature. Memory work provided not only to the group but also to the individuals a Framework through which they captured the sense of the present and the future. As such, memory work and the body mapping played a great role in our methodology implementation as well as in teaching and learning.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
We created an innovation that are improving and changing lives of all our citizens and more.

Garden for all is a much-needed innovation that allows people to learn, educate, to connect with the nature, to improve cultural aspects of citizens lives with bringing the sustainable solution for well-being.

Our innovation aims to provide access to all citizens and it is new in our state. Even we need to mention that is only one sensory, motorically and gardening park in the Europe. It has interesting elements for all citizens. And yes, Garden for all is innovative because it aspires, citizens choose it, and it is a space for discovery with acceleration connotations.

We hope that this initiative can become a great transferable innovation to other cities in the Europe.

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
It will consist:
-sensory elements
-motorically elements
-learning elements
-space for gardening - nature
-detox from technology .

These things can be fully replicated to local communities all over Bosnia and Herzegovina as well in national and international level.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
It will be used multidisciplinary methodology and strategies. We called our methodology the Sarajevo process which is described in the section of knowledge and disciplines linkage.
Connecting approach is useful in this case because it will address education, inclusion, cultural empowerment, psychology, pedagogy, andragogy, as well it will connect all different stakeholders in our local community and will provide positive example in international level.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
According to the SDC goals it will address: GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being (working in the Garden for all), GOAL 4: Quality Education (multidisciplinary programs, inclusion), GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth (for those who are working in and out of the schools place), GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (this is based on innovative approach) , GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality (open for all target groups), GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities (this initiative is sustainable and makes our city and communities to follow the smart goals), GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production (in the garden place it can be produced some veggies or others where the children and employees can be used), GOAL 15: Life on Land (basic rights implemented), GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal. (organisations, communities and others will be included in order to achieve this goal in the local level.)This solution is achievable through the implementation of mentioned goals.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
The Garden is psychical constructed in the end of December 2022. The opening of this Garden will be lunched in the March-April 2023. We expect to have the Garden operational in 2023, which means planned educational activities for the students (children with disabilities), planned activities for elderly people (Center for healthy aging), planned activities for citizens (Book Club etc.). The Garden will contribute to well being of those who use it. Since it is the first urban garden in Sarajevo, it can serve as a good role model, which can be implemented in other institutions and places throughout the country. It is inclusive, since it is accessible for children with disabilities and elderly people. As for the cultural aspect, it can be a platform for different cultural events, activities, meetings and sharing the knowledge.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
Both
PDF
Web link
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJXqTg2-Yew
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-29UdRHbxhc
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
The Initiative G4A are a physically space equipped with various learning elements in nature. Learning itself is a long-term and sustainable knowledge that is the key to success. Also our garden equip learners and educators with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for a greener and more sustainable Society. also, it helps Education and training institutions to integrate sustainability into teaching and learning and across all aspects of their operations especially if we talks about inclusion and Integration of people with disability. Garden for All created a shared Understanding on the deep and transformative changes needed in Education and training for sustainability in our City. It actively involved local and International Staff, local Authorities, CSO organizations and the Research and Innovation community in learning for sustainability and Connecting with nature.
Our initiative is linked to EU Framework in the following areas: valuing sustainability, supporting fairness, promoting nature, critical thinking, adaptability, exploratory thinking, future education, collective action, individual activity as well as problem framing in the order to
identify suitable approaches in the future for the garden 4 all and to anticipating and preventing some issues.
So, the G4A contributes to developing all new competences described in the EU competence framework on sustainability.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes