Intensive one-day training “Community Placemaking” held in Zagreb
On March 28, 2023, the first one-day training on community placemaking was held in Zagreb, during which 36 participants, through an intensive 6-hour program, were introduced to the tools and methodology of the „placemaking“ approach in the context of creating public spaces tailored to citizens. The training was conducted by Placemaking Europe with the support of KLIK – Križevci Innovation Laboratory for Climate and ODRAZ.
We were introduced to the topic of the workshop by experts from Placemaking Europe who showed how the processes of ‘placemaking’ help citizens to have their opinions heard in a way that they can publicly exchange their ideas and proposals on how to encourage effective local transformation.
The participants then visited several city locations in the city center in groups and proposed solutions for selected public spaces using the “placegame” methodology.
In the continuation of the workshop, tools and examples of good practice were presented, after which there were presentations by representatives of local communities who work on the arrangement of public spaces, thinking primarily about the well-being of the community. Examples from Croatia were presented by Sandra Vlašić, coordinator of the successful EUKI Living Streets project, Gordana Lalić, who implemented the Living Streets project in the City of Poreč, and Goran Lampelj from ODRAZ, who presented sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP) with a focus on citizen participation.
At the end of the workshop, the participants discussed in groups what they can do as placemakers in two months, one and five years.
This training is a part of the PLACE project (Placemaking for Citizen-led Missions in SE Europe), which is implemented in partnership by Placemaking Europe, Korimako, KLIK and PUSH. These organizations are part of the Thriving Communities initiative, which seeks to help communities make significant changes to create successful 21st century communities. The training was made possible with the support of the European Union Program „Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values“.