Urban Development Strategy of the municipality Škofljica
Unlock the potential of Škofljica with our comprehensive spatial and social development strategy. Our strategy incorporates key initiatives from the local population, taking into account municipal and national objectives to improve infrastructure and public services, while respecting natural and built assets. In doing so, we focus on promoting tourism, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, while seeking to preserve cultural heritage and protect the environment.
Local
Slovenia
Central Slovenian Region / Škofljica Municipality
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-04-01
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): MONOMO arhitekti Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Mia Last name of representative: Crnič Gender: Female Nationality: Slovenia Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Dunajska cesta 158 Town: Ljubljana Postal code: 1000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 40 756 769 E-mail:info@monomo-arhitetki.si Website:https://monomo-arhitekti.si/
The municipality of Škofljica in Slovenia has commissioned a comprehensive urban development strategy for the period 2020-2035. The aim of the strategy is to strengthen the economic and social development of the municipality, while addressing environmental and cultural issues.
To prepare the strategy, the architectural firm MONOMO Architects, in collaboration with PhD Ilka Čerpes, carried out a thorough analysis of local initiatives and a workshop with representatives of the local community. In addition, the team carried out an evaluation of national projects that could potentially benefit the municipality.
The resulting strategy focuses on several key areas, including the promotion of tourism, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the improvement of infrastructure and public services. It also includes measures to protect the environment and support the preservation of cultural heritage.
Overall, the municipal strategy for 2020-2035 presents a comprehensive approach to development that takes into account the needs and priorities of the local community. It provides pragmatic and achievable guidelines based on the spatial situation and its constraints and opportunities, the existing visions of municipal and national projects, and on the other hand actively involves the local population and its needs. The result is a strategy that prioritises the local needs of Škofljica municipality, but whose method is transferable to other places and can be applied in different areas.
Sustainable development of the local community
Municipality
Comprehensive urban development
Connectivity and inclusion of the local inhabitants
Strategic approach
The main objective of the project is to shape the development of the built and natural environment in a way that is well-designed, in line with the principles of environmental protection and climate change prevention, and that encourages the building of a cohesive local community.
Key sustainability objectives are:
- Urban sprawl limit: existing built structures are restructured according to natural and built features, transport links, proximity to public transport, etc. This approach does not demolish buildings or develop areas with new buildings but regulates the quality of the environment and services in accordance with the characteristics of the area.
- Protecting and preserving the natural landscape throughout the municipality: protecting the Ljubljana Marshes by strengthening and encouraging sustainable and slow tourism.
- Development of sustainable mobility: cycling and walking paths network, improvement of the exiting railway infrastructure, no new infrastructure for car traffic.
- Connected network of the quality designed public space in human scale.
- Balanced development of urban and rural functions.
- Prioritise the provision of infrastructure in areas where it is not provided.
- Providing jobs for people in the municipality itself.
- Providing a network of cultural, educational, and other leisure facilities in the municipality's local communities.
A major focus of the Strategy project is the direct involvement of individuals and local communities in the process of defining priority common development objectives. This way, the individual communities that co-shape the space are brought together, their awareness of the importance of the commons for the well-being of everyone and their responsibility for a more sustainable development of the environment is established. To achieve our sustainability goals, we have encouraged the municipality as an institution to work with local inhabitants to align local national and European objectives.
Key objectives in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people:
- Use of local materials.
- Sourcing projects through architectural and urban design competitions.
- Involving local craftsmen and businesses in the implementation of projects.
- Material and conceptual interpretation of the identity of the local community.
- Multidisciplinary design teams.
- More integrated projects for the development of public spaces.
- Educating the local inhabitants on urban and architectural issues and possible solutions.
- Quality communication, expression of opinions.
These objectives can be achieved primarily through active public participation in spatial development. By being involved in the development of the Strategy from an early stage, local inhabitants were given the opportunity to share their views with fellow citizens and experts through their experience of their hometown: what to improve, what is lacking, or to highlight elements, areas, facilities or other things that they are proud of and need to be protected.
Through peer-to-peer communication and expert-led sharing of opinions, a dialogue between residents was established and trust in the experts' proposals was built up. This has enabled local people to take a common position, to identify common threats and weaknesses, and on the other hand to establish the strengths and opportunities they see in their surroundings. Active participation in the conception of the development strategy has strengthened the sense of responsibility and commitment of the local population that only by working together can they achieve quality spatial development.
Responsible community action is a key instrument for creating a quality living environment. As a result, residents recognise the benefits of their living environment and make greater use of well-designed urban amenities and public open spaces. This encourages greater interaction between residents, leading to a sense of community and belonging.
Our aim was to design a project that can only be realised through the collaboration of the public, the municipal administration and the State with its national projects planned in the municipality of Škofljica. To this end, as an initial project of the strategy, we carried out an online workshop under expert guidance. Based on spatial analyses and pre-prepared possible scenarios, a set of trade-offs and the local inhabitants through a process of elimination gradually developed a hierarchy of common objectives.
By involving individuals and institutions at different levels and across generations, the project has established participation in local communities. At the same time, it created cooperation with the municipal administration. The role of the local community as the most important element in the formulation of the development strategy was crucial for the project. This has made the bottom-up process a reality and ensured that the local level is the most important.
Public involvement has given the community an insight into the future development projects and aspirations of the Municipality. Local people have a better understanding of the place, its problems, and opportunities, and are better able to co-create the place. At the same time, this strategic approach enables the design of spatial solutions that are targeted at the local population and with which they can identify.
The analysis carried out in the Strategy has shown which functions and services are needed in the place and which are deficient. The strategic approach set out in the strategy is not to build new facilities, but to redevelop the existing situation and focus on developing access to them. A wide range of services, such as health, education, recreation, healthy living environment, will consequently be more accessible to residents, both physically and financially, as a result of the Strategy. This has ensured equal spatial development and equal treatment and involvement of all residents.
Citizens were involved in the Strategy project in two steps.
In the first part of the public involvement process, individuals made suggestions for changes and improvements in specific locations in the municipality. Inhabitants gave a wide range of suggestions, such as the change of land use, the desire to build a kindergarten, the need to build municipal infrastructure (e.g. water supply, sewage system, fibre optic internet network, road layout, etc.), the installation of new signs, playgrounds, etc. At the end of the collection of initiatives, the project team analysed the collected suggestions and displayed them on a map.
The next step in the public involvement process was a workshop with local community representatives. The aim of the workshop was to educate local community representatives about the area and to encourage communication and shared views. During this part of the workshop, the community representatives received the results of the analysis of the initiatives collected from the residents. First, they rated the collected initiatives according to the importance of implementing each initiative. A round table of all the representatives together followed this, where they identified, through mutual communication, understanding and exchange of views, which initiatives of each local community were essential for the municipality, and which were less essential.
The workshop showed that involving local community representatives leads to better spatial development outcomes. Participants learned that to achieve quality results, they need to take into account all aspects of the area, while sharing their information and experiences about the place. The community was made aware that it is important to prioritize the most pressing issues before moving forward with specific planning steps, to create targeted and effective spatial development.
The project involved local inhabitants and institutions at different levels. The Municipality of Škofljica was interested in the project as it had to provide a strategic document that would serve as the basis for a spatial act for spatial development in the period 2020-2035.
In the first part of the project, the municipality provided a list of completed projects that had been developed in the framework of the previous strategy.
This was followed by the collection of spatial planning initiatives submitted by the inhabitants of Škofljica. The initiatives were collected over the period 2016-2020. Citizens could submit several initiatives at the same time on a wide range of topics. During the collection process, each initiative was displayed on a parcel map. (Local level - individual initiatives)
Soon after, we organised workshop with representatives of local communities. The collected initiatives were evaluated by representatives of the local communities, who evaluated the initiatives within their own local area. (Local community level)
At the end of the collection of initiatives, the Municipality (Municipality employees) also gave their initiatives to show how they see the space, what they propose, which content is necessary for development, which is less so. (Municipality administration level)
All initiatives at the level of citizens, local community and Municipality were finally displayed, including projects at national and European level. This allowed the interests of all involved to be addressed in a mutual and integrated way.
The added value of multi-stakeholder interaction is that it can provide a bottom-up and top-down approach. This approach actively involves all stakeholders in co-designing the place, with a focus on local participation. This model allows the development of a municipality not to be limited by municipal boundaries, but also to ensure cooperation and inter-regional integration.
The project is reflected in the fields of architecture, urbanism, spatial planning, public communication, and local governance.
Integration and knowledge transfer between local authorities and experts in architecture, urbanism and spatial planning are key to the preparation of a high quality and implementable municipal development strategy. Equally important are appropriate strategies and techniques for communicating with the public to enable every resident to understand the changes the strategy will bring to the area and their impact on the quality of life (illustrative graphic visualisations in 2D and 3D techniques), and the strategy will also help to improve the quality of life in the area.
Therefore, the project has been carried out with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity. The method used was data collection, followed by data research and transformation into information that was evaluated and presented to the local community. This was then further evaluated in a workshop. All this led us to the outcome of the Strategy. This recognises social as well as technical and environmental science. At its core is spatial planning, which brings all these sciences together and translates the results of the data in project development into concrete spatial projects.
The project has produced two important results.
1. Through active public participation, we have achieved public interaction, dialogue and the formation of critical judgements about space, about what is more and less important for a place. The workshop proved to be an important educational instrument for public participation in decision-making on the spatial development of the municipality. It also gave the public competences on understanding of space.
2. A synthesis of the spatial development of the municipality, which has been created by overlapping, observing, and evaluating initiatives at local and municipal level, and in parallel with the consideration of national projects and a preliminary analysis of the natural and built environment (settlement, natural values, cultural heritage, flooding, erosion, etc.). The synthesis map is the result of a strategic document focused on spatial development, with the local community and the integrated protection of the environment at the forefront. Understanding how to balance spatial issues, environmental protection and the community's need to connect with space has helped guide approaches to improve and restructure existing plans for more comprehensive and integrated spatial development.
The outcome of the project provided concrete spatial solutions to be implemented in the municipality with the aim of:
- Integrated protection of natural values.
- Ensuring the quality of life.
- Strengthening the identity of the municipality.
- Providing jobs for the citizens of the municipality.
- Ensuring the leisure time of the citizens of the municipality.
- Consolidation and containment of settlements.
- Strengthening urbanisation in the north-south axis.
The main objective of the strategy project was to develop a strategy with guidelines and orientations, which would be the result of active public participation and a parallel consideration of natural and built assets.
Urban Development Strategy of the municipality Škofljica is a pilot project, which for the first time tested a method of active public participation, which successfully resulted in spatial development outputs.
Typical strategic projects are mostly focused on the preparation of a document on the spatial development of the municipality, with only the municipal administration and politically motivated initiatives actively involved. As the public is mostly not involved, such Strategies are a municipal design and not a citizens' design. This leads to inappropriate spatial development and the emigration of the local population. People find it harder to identify with a place because they have no power to influence its development, the quality of life is lower and environmental damage is increased.
Environmental degradation, inadequate exploitation of natural resources and the incapacity to restore the natural environment are also caused by the fact that the planning of such projects does not include comprehensive research, analysis and findings on the current conditions of the area (nature protection, flood zones, cultural heritage sites, existing state of municipal infrastructure, existing state of spatial planning, etc., their simultaneous treatment and synthesis of the existing situation).
Before designing the project strategy method, we took note of the above issues. Our goal was to implement a project that would improve the condition of the area while also actively engaging the local community, prioritizing the residents' needs and experiences over municipal regulations. The method is therefore bottom-up.
The project research consists of two main analytical parts.
Part 1: Analysis of the existing situation
a) Analysis of the achieved and unachieved objectives of the previous Spatial Development Strategy of the Municipality of Škofljica for the period 2010-2020.
b) Analysis of the existing built and unbuilt environment in the whole area of the Municipality of Škofljica. Identification of the natural and built features affecting the development of the municipality, what needs to be protected, which areas are suitable for construction, etc. The analysis is concluded with a synthesis map of constraints.
Part 2: analysis of initiatives
a) Collection of spatial development initiatives submitted by citizens in the period 2016-2020, initiatives of local communities, municipal administrations, and state projects. Analysis of individual citizen initiatives, input into a GIS system and displayed on a common map.
b) Workshop with local community representatives. The representatives of the local communities were presented with 6 individual initiatives that were most frequently raised in each local community. Each representative then first selected the 2 most important initiatives of their local community. This was followed by a joint ranking of the selected initiatives. Within each group, the representatives jointly ranked only the selected initiatives. The initiatives were entered into the GIS.
c) Overview of the municipal administration initiatives mapped using GIS.
d) Display of all national (and European) projects in the municipality of Škofljica.
e) Joint mapping of selected initiatives of local communities, municipal administration, and national projects.
Synthesis:
Layering the map with a synthesis map of the constraints from Part 1 with the collected initiatives from local communities, municipal administrations and national projects. The synthesis map showed feasible spatial development initiatives. It provided orientations for development in the municipality.
The Strategy project method is designed to be both applicable and replicable.
The method has been piloted in the spatial area - spatial development, preservation and protection of nature and cultural heritage, and the parallel realisation of a healthy and quality living environment. The approach was carried out in cooperation with representatives at various levels (residents, municipal employees, also state projects). The participating public was also composed of different generations.
The workshop was held online, which worked well. This means that the feasibility of the workshop can be done with participants who would not be able to attend a face-to-face workshop. The sample of the public involved can be adjusted according to the needs of the research.
The workshop method can be used in a variety of areas, regardless of the location and scale of the problem. The method can be transferred to technological and service processes (not only for research purposes), as such a method could allow product improvements.
The method can be used in an holistic way, including all strands, or only one element of the research can be carried out for the needs of the project or project phase. The approach to data collection is also an important segment of the method, as the data collection method through the workshop also educates the public on the topic under study.
An important contribution of the method is that it can be applied in a wide range of fields, in an interdisciplinary way and with broad public participation. It can be implemented in phases, depending on the needs of the research and on the financial resources available. As the method is designed for data collection, evaluation and digitization, it can be implemented regardless of the location of the project and regardless of the time component.
- Active involvement of individuals, local communities and government projects in strategy formulation.
- Interaction at national, municipal, and local level through cooperation and understanding.
- Educating the general public about place.
- Quality of public dialogue, mutual communication, and common positions.
- Limiting and regulating the growth of settlements and revitalized the dispersed settlements in the municipality.
- Reducing the carbon footprint through active mobility (pedestrian and cycle paths) and public transport.
- Changing existing land uses into new land uses more appropriate to the area. This protects and preserves nature, provides a healthy and quality living environment, and brings services closer to people.
- Integrating biodiversity and protecting biotic ecosystems.
- Protecting cultural heritage.
- Providing jobs.
- Providing health and education facilities in the municipality.
- Proximity to services, equal accessibility, and usability for all.
- Enhancing the infrastructure in the municipality results in a healthier and more vibrant environment and equal living standards across the municipality.
