As we approach a new five-year term for the European Parliament and European Commission, the urgency of including citizens in urban transformation has never been clearer. In this opinion in Euractiv, the Desire partners conclude on two years of work.
Desire, November 2024
The transition to a sustainable, inclusive, and vibrant Europe hinges on one core principle: citizen involvement. As we approach a new five-year term for the European Parliament and European Commission, the urgency of including citizens in urban transformation has never been clearer.
It is with great excitement that Desire – Designing the Irresistible Circular Society – one of six Lighthouse Demonstrators under the New European Bauhaus initiative and the first to finish - shares its findings and recommendations. Over the past two years, Desire has worked alongside communities across Europe, making European citizens pivotal to our work. The insights we've gathered are not just research outcomes but a rallying call for a renewed urban policy agenda.
A Holistic Vision for Sustainable Urban Spaces
"The consortium behind Desire represents a diverse community of practice, which is exactly the transdisciplinary approach that is needed in European urban transformation today. We depend on the values and principles that Desire and the New European Bauhaus stand for to breathe new life into urban areas", says Torben Klitgaard, CEO of BLOXHUB and Desire lead.
Cities are more than just collections of buildings; they are ecosystems where humans and non-humans cohabit, creating spaces that are crucial for thriving communities. The built environment, therefore, becomes a powerful leverage point to reimagine our collective future. To envision a sustainable transition amidst today’s overlapping crises, we must go beyond established norms. We need creative, interdisciplinary approaches that invite everyone to participate. This means integrating the social, economic, and ecological dimensions that form the backbone of a circular and regenerative urban future.
Place-Based Transformation
We’ve experienced that real lasting transformation comes from place-based change, where collaboration among designers, artists, architects, municipalities, and local communities can play an important role.
1.Creating Sustainable Futures Through Deep Engagement
For urban transformation efforts to be truly sustainable, they must consider local contexts and leverage deep engagement points like mindsets, beliefs, and worldviews. The Narratives we’ve gathered reflect our efforts to not just intervene in these urban spaces but to create conditions for citizens to become active participants.
In Kalundborg (DK) and Amsterdam (NL) have gained completely new and self-aware groups of citizens who have learned that they too can have a voice in the green transformation. Activities in Riga (LV) have taught the municipality how to build trust between authorities and citizens, which is a prerequisite for renovating the many Soviet housing blocks in a sustainable, inclusive and qualitative way.
2.Designing Urban Spaces for Trust and Ownership
One underexplored dilemma is the initial disconnect some organizations felt with their assigned sites. This suggests that a familiarization phase - where organizations and individuals immerse themselves in the local environment - might be necessary before driving place-based change. Listening deeply and creating formats that allow participants to express their needs is crucial. This approach builds trust, nurtures ownership, and empowers citizens to co-design meaningful outcomes.
In Kalundborg, the first initiative focused on listening to the place and learning from its history. This approach created trust and ownership and sparked ideas for essential place-based changes. Similarly in Ljubljana (SI), a business and shopping area, has recognized the value of collaborating across companies, authorities, educational institutions, and local residents to develop a strategy for making the city greener. This approach not only supported a connection with the sites but also built a long-term strategy of becoming the ‘green norm’ of the region through designing green spaces, buildings and identity, also enhancing the city's appeal for future generations.
3.Innovating Through Art, Design, and Participation
Aesthetics is not just about physical design; it’s about framing spaces that invite exploration and dialogue. Aesthetic awareness can heighten our sensory engagement, helping us rethink our relationships with our surroundings and envision new alternatives. Transformation processes must harness this to create more receptive and inclusive communities.
Artistic and design practices are key to engaging communities and transforming places. An example is the Garden Caretaker in Herlev (DK), where artists used various methods like fictional writing, sculpting, performance, and audio walks to deepen connections between stakeholders and non-human beings. The urban farming site Cascina Falchera (IT) also lets an artist speak to new audiences with the hope to connect people with nature. In the MIND Milano Innovation District (IT), prominent yellow “Desire benches” follow the thoughts in a ‘Beauty for All’ framework to help decision-makers incorporate beauty and inclusiveness when expanding the area’s enormous main street Decumano.
Learnings from the social housing area, Gadehavegaard (DK) show that if you customize co-creation processes to involve young people you may end up with completely new and innovative ideas, which can inspire the project description. This has inspired GXN, an architectural firm, to formalize the working method into a free design toolkit.
With Desire, we have embarked on an ambitious journey of innovation, experimenting with sustainable, attractive, and inclusive urban and territorial spaces. By bringing together art, design, and architecture, we’re not merely creating physical transformations but cultivating narratives that inspire new urban trajectories. These stories illuminate the possibilities of cities that thrive on diversity, beauty, and shared ownership.
However, the narratives also reveal the necessity of new frameworks to monitor temporary urban enhancements and evaluate outcomes through qualitative data, highlighting the power of artistic practices in the process. If time had allowed, we could have identified the pivot points for when the changes occurred and manifested itself.
A Call to Action for European Policymakers
As the Desire project concludes, it becomes clear that sustainable, just urban transformation is only achievable when citizens are at its core. European policymakers must champion these participatory approaches, ensuring that urban projects align with local needs and values. While progress is being made, more research and pilot projects are essential for the development of methods that can support the transition. But encouragingly our results demonstrate that by integrating creativity, trust, and co-design principles into policy frameworks, we can pave the way for cities that are not just sustainable but also thriving, inclusive, and beautiful.
The Desire opinion has also been published at Euractiv