Designing Participatory Spaces: Innovation in Placemaking and Capacity Building
Designing Participatory Spaces is a cross-cultural collaboration between STPLN (Malmö, Sweden) and Aks Creative Hub, supported by the Swedish Institute.
The project explores how participatory design and placemaking can be used as tools for social innovation, creativity, and democracy-building. By connecting designers, artists, urban planners, and community members, the initiative aims to imagine new ways of shaping public spaces — collaboratively, inclusively, and playfully.
Partners
STPLN
Swedish Institute
*The project is funded by the Swedish Institute under the Creative Partnerships program.
Year
June, 2025 - June, 2026
Over the course of a year, the project developed and tested a participatory design method, applied in Malmö, Sweden. The method engages people in three creative steps — dreaming, mapping, and defining — to collect ideas and insights about how spaces can better respond to community needs.
The participatory design method developed within the project draws inspiration from everyday actions — speaking, moving, and ordering — turning them into playful tools for urban co-creation.
Dream It: Participants take the stage to share their dreams, visions, and ideas about what a space could become. This step invites imagination, storytelling, and emotional connection to place.
Walk It: People explore and map the site, identifying what they love, what’s missing, and what could change. It helps ground dreams in real, lived experiences.
Order It: Through a playful “idea bar” setup, participants order their wishes for the space from a menu — small fixes, big transformations, or joyful additions.
Together, these steps build a layered understanding of how communities perceive and wish to transform their environments.
The first phase of the project took place in Malmö in August 2025, hosted by STPLN.
The workshop series gathered creative professionals, local organizations, and residents to test the Dream It, Walk It, Order It method in a real urban context.
Participants:
-
Explored a selected site in Malmö to discuss how participatory design could activate it.
-
Shared stories, mapped experiences, and co-created ideas for inclusive and sustainable urban spaces.
-
Reflected on how creative processes can strengthen social cohesion and democratic participation.
The workshops were supported by local facilitators and featured interactive materials such as maps, order menus, and public engagement walls.
As part of the Malmö event, a panel discussion brought together local and international voices from the fields of design, culture, and urban development.
Panelists:
Annita Douka
Jenny Grettve
Martin Gull
Kayenna Kirchhoff
Abbas Sbeity
Zeynep Ünsal
Participatory Design
Booklet
Connecting Communities through Design – A New European Bauhaus Approach
The Participatory Design Booklet is the concluding outcome of Designing Participatory Spaces: Innovation in Placemaking and Capacity Building, a project supported by the Swedish Institute and aligned with the values of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) — beautiful, sustainable, and together.
The booklet captures a year of cross-cultural experimentation between Sweden and Türkiye, bringing together creative professionals, researchers, and community members to explore how participatory design can be a catalyst for social and spatial transformation.
It reflects the project’s central belief: that building more inclusive, resilient, and joyful cities begins with listening, imagining, and creating together.
Rooted in the principles of co-creation and collective imagination, the booklet serves as both a reflective publication and a practical toolkit for future participatory processes.
Through the Dream It, Walk It, Order It methodology, the project demonstrates how design can turn conversations into concrete urban actions — from rethinking neglected sites to generating new cultural uses for shared spaces.
The publication connects participatory methods with the NEB vision by transforming creative dialogue into tangible prototypes that enhance urban life and empower communities to take ownership of their environments.
What’s Inside
Essays & Reflections
Articles linking participatory design, placemaking, and the New European Bauhaus ideals of sustainability, inclusion, and aesthetics — written by designers, researchers, and cultural practitioners.
Methodology: Dream It, Walk It, Order It
A structured yet playful process guiding communities from imagination to action, presented through visuals, prompts, and facilitation tips.
Case Studies: Malmö & Ankara
Two urban contexts, two cultural realities — exploring how the same participatory design method adapts to different social and spatial conditions.
Design Tools & Future Prototypes
Practical tools and insights that can inform future community-driven design processes and contribute to the growing body of NEB-inspired local actions.
Why It Matters
The Participatory Design Booklet translates creative participation into scalable frameworks for urban transformation.
It shows how bottom-up collaboration can support the NEB mission by fostering civic imagination, cultural sustainability, and a stronger sense of belonging.
By turning shared dreams into future design strategies, it invites cities, cultural institutions, and design practitioners to continue experimenting — and to keep building a more beautiful, sustainable, and united Europe, together.
