Creative Placemaking with Youth - Urban Transformations with Youth Participation
Capitalizing on local community’s assets, youthful inspiration and potential, the project enables young people to actively participate in shaping the physical and social character of public spaces in order to create better conditions in cities and towns. Nurturing young generations to become aware of the urban environment, the project shapes the citizens of tomorrow, exemplifying that together through youth’s creativity and inclusion, we can transform our urban realities for the better.
Local
Bulgaria
Plovdiv
The Municipality of Plovdiv
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
“Where after all do human rights begin?
In small places, close to home.
Unless these rights have meaning there,
they have little meaning anywhere.”- E. Roosevelt, “Remarks at the United Nations, March 27, 1953.
'Creative Placemaking with Youth' enables young people to actively participate in shaping the physical and social character of public spaces in cities and towns by focusing on youth needs, aspirations and visions. Involving arts and culture, the concept underlines the importance of participatory processes with youth to create better conditions in cities and towns and makes use of youth’s insights, creativity and thoughts on the environment to shape our future urban realities for the better.
Capitalizing on local community’s assets, youthful inspiration and potential, the project nurtures the citizens of tomorrow and promotes the creation of public spaces that benefit people’s health, happiness, and well-being.
By conducting placemaking workshops with young people in selected public spaces in cities and towns, the initiative gives them the opportunity to participate in the conceptualization and transformation of the urban fabric. It is a process centered on youth needs which relies strongly on community participation, cultivating citizens who know how to work collaboratively to create more sustainable and inclusive urban futures. This is at the heart of “Creative Placemaking with Youth”.
Using the city of Plovdiv as a test-ground, the project adapts the methodology of the urban living labs in conducting creative placemaking workshops with youth and exercising the concept in public spaces of different scale and character. During the workshops which are led by architects and artists, physical models of the public space are provided where young people can share their ideas. Based on youth's shared visions, conceptual architecture and urban planning projects are developed for the improvement of every public space and shared with city decision-makers.
creative placemaking
youth participation
urban living labs
urban transformation
participatory planning
The project aims to promote more inclusive and sustainable urban spaces through youth's creativity and visions, showing ways in which young people can actively participate in the conception of the urban environment bringing together youth organisations, architects, urban specialists, artists and municipal representatives, simultaneously addressing points from the Revised European Charter on the Participation of young people in local and regional life, to pursue urban environment policies which closely involve young people in consultation arrangements bringing together locally or regionally elected representatives, economic decision makers and leaders of associations.
The key objectives of the concept specifically address and operationalize on three of the SDGs of the UN Agenda 2030, namely SDG №11 – “Sustainable cities and communities”- making cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, SDG №3- achieving health and well-being for all ages, and SDG №16 - promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and building effective and inclusive institutions at all levels. Furthermore, the Agenda 21 - the action plan of the United Nations on sustainable development, includes a chapter on youth as a major group whose protection and health need to be central to the goals for sustainable development, and who need to be included in participatory planning processes to improve the environment. In addition, the Habitat II Agenda specifically underlines the importance of participatory processes with youth to create better conditions in cities and towns and “to make use of youth’s insights, creativity and thoughts on the environment.” Nurturing young generations to become aware of their cities and towns, the project shapes the citizens of tomorrow, exemplifying that together through creativity and inclusion, we can transform our urban realities for the better, remembering that we shape our environments and they shape us in reverse.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
The concept considers the fact that aesthetics and beauty are differently understood, perceived and accepted by each person. Therefore, the project gives the freedom of participants to share their visions and perceptions of beauty through ideas and creative thoughts on public spaces while having positive emotions in different socio-cultural environments during creative placemaking workshops. Improving the image of the city through rejuvenating public spaces with collaborative creative placemaking actions, while fostering community inclusion and participation, is at the core of the concept in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people, through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits. By transforming public spaces, participants create more beautiful and useful places according to their perceptions and experiences. The concept emphasizes the value of the playful perspective of young people in helping architects, urban planners and grown-ups see the city with new eyes. Involving young people as the 'citizens of tomorrow', in such consultation initiatives will lead to elevated sense of attachment and sense of place, which will reflect on better care for places in cities. The exemplary aspect of the concept is that through experiential placemaking processes, young people are directly engaged in improving spaces and contexts of cities and have the opportunity to reshape them, both aesthetically and functionally, while developing place attachment, sense of place and belonging, community spirit and care for the urban environment. Outcomes of the creative placemaking workshops with youth can be both tangible - like new trees planted - and intangible - like new feelings of confidence and attachment to a place. Both types of outcomes matter – a project might not lead to tangible outcomes but still succeed in instilling citizenship values and collective action in young people that they can apply in the future.
The key objectives of the concept are to make cities more inclusive, resilient, safe, enjoyable and sustainable places to live and experience through bringing the youth perspective and rejuvenating public spaces with collaborative creative placemaking actions, while fostering community inclusion and participation. Inclusivity is at the heart of the concept in terms of accessibility and affordability, design and governance. The creative placemaking workshops will be accessible and affordable for everyone. The results will be used to introduce new urban planning policy models contributing to more inclusive governance of cities taking into account the youth perspective. Specifically, the concept addresses the I.3 Sectoral Policy of the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life on urban environment and habitat, stating that together with representatives of youth organizations, local and regional authorities should create conditions for developing an urban environment policy based on a more integrated, less fragmented living environment which is conducive to social interaction and the development of high quality public spaces. The project aims to show that Local and regional authorities should pursue new governing models which closely involve young people in consultation arrangements bringing together locally or regionally elected representatives, key decision makers, leaders of associations, artists, architects urban planners and other relevant stakeholders. The concept puts special emphasis on the inclusion of young people who are least likely to be heard, due to immigration status, ethnicity, income, physical barriers, or disabilities. Including young people with physical and mental disabilities in such creative placemaking consultations and listening to their needs, thoughts and ideas is especially important for the creation of more inclusive urban environments, healthier and happier communities.
The concept puts special emphasis on youth’s engagement in urban planning processes through creative placemaking methods, while fostering community inclusion and creating healthier and happier places and societies. Therefore the beneficiaries of the concept are both young people and the civil society who can have their ideas and visions reflected on the urban fabric through participatory processes. Especially, young people who are least likely to be heard, due to immigration status, ethnicity, income, physical barriers, or disabilities are both affected by the concept and benefiting from it because their thoughts can be considered in making more inclusive public places. Citizens benefit from direct engagement, nurturing an enduring sense of place, leveraging the creative potential of public spaces, increasing vitality, economic opportunity and allowing communities to thrive where they are. The youthful perspective creates more interesting and vibrant places capitalizing on mixture of uses and distinctiveness, leading to happier and healthier communities. Intensifying and mixing activities creates opportunities for stumbling onto the fun and mingling with other people. Creative placemaking with youth fosters connections among people and across cultures, resulting in safer, connected and youthful places where people want to spend time in and take care of. The long-term benefit is that the involvement of youth will result in nurturing the citizens of tomorrow to be more engaged and to commit to the restoration of cities, environments and neglected public spaces. Moreover, with more outdoor spaces to enjoy, young people will be in better mental and physical health leading to healthier communities. Making shared spaces more welcoming, where people can socialize, learn something, support the place economy and creatively connect with youth and locals will create a true vibrancy which will help people, neighborhoods and cities succeed in both tangible and intangible ways.
Local, regional, national and European stakeholders were all engaged in various ways in the development of the concept. It’s worth mentioning that the concept emerged during my PhD research on the topic of “Placemaking as an instrument for urban regeneration”, while specifically focusing on adapting the approach for the regeneration of public spaces in Bulgaria. The concept was further enriched with the perspective of youth participation during my mandate as a youth delegate of Bulgaria to the United Nations in 2021 and 2022 and to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg during 2022 as part of the ‘Rejuvenating Politics’ Initiative. The added value of their engagement and support was mainly through providing guidelines and feedback during the refinement of the concept and motivation to test and realize it in public space of my choice. Having a lot of sentiment for my hometown - the city of Plovdiv, I decided to realize and test the concept in the only public space in the "Kapana Creative District" – the so called “Yadro” (meaning “The Core”) that I have been investigating over time finding out to be regularly appropriated by young people, however lacking basic infrastructure to support and cherish that appropriation. On a local level, the Municipality of Plovdiv was also engaged by giving me informal consultations with the municipal youth experts and, especially, by permitting me to use the public space mentioned above in order to realise such a placemaking initiative with young people. The local media – radio Plovdiv invited me to speak about the project and to present the concept to city residents. On a national, regional and local levels various NGOs, local youth organisations and the University of architecture were also engaged, providing volunteers and support, popularizing the project among young people and local communities and helping for carrying out the first creative placemaking workshop with youth in Plovdiv.
The interdisciplinary character of the concept reflects the disciplines of architecture, participatory urban planning, placemaking, philosophy, phenomenology, youth work, urban health, psychology, sociology, art and design, urban governance, urban anthropology, culture and academic research amongst others. The disciplines of architecture, participatory urban planning and creative placemaking, are at the core of the concept whereby architects, urban planners, youth leaders and municipal representatives are involved in the design and implementation of the creative placemaking workshops with youth. Together with representatives of youth organisations, local and regional authorities aim to create conditions for developing an urban policies based on a more integrated, less fragmented living environment which is conducive to social interaction and the development of high quality public spaces by involving young people in consultation arrangements bringing together locally or regionally elected representatives, economic decision makers, leaders of associations, architects, artists and relevant stakeholders. Together with architects and urban planners, urban anthropologists take part in the site analysis activities and the preparation of specific models and materials which facilitate the participation of young people during the workshops. The workshops include psychologists who can work with young people with special needs. From an academic research perspective, the project will reveal how the placemaking approach can be used as an effective tool for urban regeneration through youth participation and how it can be more successfully integrated into the practice of architects, urban planners, municipalities and local administration. The research strategy is a progressive investigation of placemaking as a creative-iterative process an interaction between people, their perceptions, attitudes and the urban fabric.
The idea of an architect(artist)-led creative placemaking process coupled with youth participation and community engagement as an extremely interdisciplinary approach to improving cities and places is where the innovative character of the concept comes from. Particularly merging the fields of creative placemaking and youth participation, the project employs action-research methods based on the urban living labs approach, reflected in the placemaking workshops, in order to find out how youth can be included in urban planning processes, while simultaneously coming up with visions for improving public spaces in cities and coming up with suggestions for more inclusive governance policies. Moreover, the concept puts a special emphasis on involving young people who are least likely to be heard with the help of psychologists, therapists and other relevant specialists during planning, design and implementation of the creative placemaking process. Participants are perceived as urban researchers through the action-research methods typical for the urban living labs approach which puts users at the center of innovation while also using innovative art practices during the workshops to awaken the creativity of young people. From a research perspective, the project strives to reveal how the creative placemaking approach can be used as an effective tool for urban regeneration through youth participation while involving local communities and how it can be more successfully integrated into the practice of architects, urban planners, municipalities and relevant urban governance structures, reflecting in healthier, happier, more beautiful, resilient and inclusive cities and communities.
The concept of creative placemaking with youth is like a dandelion flower , able to disseminate seeds all over the world, seeds that can flourish everywhere. Put in simple words, it is entirely replicable and can be transferred to various contexts and places, regardless of scale or socio-spatial characteristics. The methodology is entirely adaptable to every context, composed of key methodological steps, including:
1.Selection of potential public spaces that need improvement and where youth are the key stakeholders and/or spaces that have the potential to become more youth-friendly;
2.Identification of relevant stakeholders and involvement of the local community in the process;
3.Establishing contact with municipal leaders, youth experts and organisations and their involvement from the beginning;
4.Site analysis- mapping of spatial opportunities and challenges. Identification of strong and weak points with evaluation tools such as the Diagram of Place;
5.Popularisation of the initiative via social media, local radio and TV and in the local community by distributing leaflets;
6.Creation of physical models of the space, questionnaires and materials for drawing and making to be used by young people during workshops;
7.Conduct in-depth consultations with participants to delve more into their perceptions, visions, suggestions;
8.Collection, analysis and synthesis of results by architects and experts;
9.Preparation of visions, drawings and conceptual projects for the transformation of public spaces based on young people’s input;
10.Sharing outputs with young people to ask for their feedback and reflecting it back.
11.Presentation of projects to key decision-makers such as municipalities, Chief city architect and persuasion for the realization of prepared visions.
12.Based on collected data and experience - devising strategies, policy suggestions and measures on youth involvement in urban planning processes.
The concept of 'Creative placemaking with youth' starts from the local scale to address the global challenges of making cities more inclusive, sustainable, healthier, happier and beautiful places to live in. According to the UN, 68% of the world population will live in urban areas by the year 2050. The urban population has been growing rapidly which creates multi-faceted problems in cities. UN DESA highlights that “the future of sustainable development will be partly determined in urban areas. With more than half of the world’s population living in urban areas, urbanization is already impacting the implementation progress of the Agenda 2030. There are more people under the age of 25 today than ever, totaling nearly three billion or almost half of the global population. The Resolution adopted by the UNGA in 2016 about the New Urban Agenda highlights the importance of youth participation in decision making processes. Furthermore, according to the UN-Habitat, agenda setting of local governments and planning of cities should be influenced by young people: “urbanization is the engine that propels the world towards prosperity and youth are the architects.” The creation of places with youth nurtures citizenship skills and values in young people which is very important as they're the citizens of tomorrow.
Moreover, according to statistics, mental and physical health has exacerbated, especially among young people after the Covid19 pandemic. Research has shown that placemaking initiatives create opportunities for gathering, socialization, and volunteerism, thus reducing psychological distress and depression, facilitating play and active recreation. Regular physical activity is vital, improving cognitive function, and decreasing the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease and type2 diabetes. Thus, the project encourages better lifestyles, stimulating collaboration, establishing social relationships and improving urban health and well-being on multiple levels.
