Reblog: Building Social Capital Through Bottom-Up Urbanism in Athens

Jiya Benni
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read
Pittaki Street: A formerly derelict alley brought alive by lamps donated by volunteers (Image: Wikimedia)

This one came to me as a volunteer assignment from Laneway Project, a nonprofit organisation in Toronto that works to convert laneways to vibrant public spaces. As researcher and writer, I was asked to study best practices in laneway projects across the world and write about any one of them. Since another volunteer had already researched examples from the US & Australia, I was left to get more creative and research about lesser known examples from the non-English-speaking world.

There were four projects that were interesting to study — the Dashilar project in Beijing that revived a traditional urban hutong in the city; the revival of Gaengeviertel in Hamburg by artists and citizens to prevent its demolition; a project called BioUrban in Sao Paulo led by a sociologist who lived and worked in a favela to develop a sense of stewardship among the favela dwellers and lastly, Atenistas — a citizen group in Athens that is run exclusively by volunteers to regenerate dead spaces in Athens and make people fall in love (again) with Athens.

Tough as it may be, I had to choose one of these projects to write on. I think what really pulled me towards Atenistas was the community spirit and love for the city they seemed to be injecting into Athens and its people. And so, I began to write about them. To read the article, click here.

Contemplating Urban Matters

A literary translation of my thoughts on cities, public spaces, urbanism etcetera.

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Jiya Benni

Written by

urbanist, aspiring writer, compulsive thinker

Contemplating Urban Matters

A literary translation of my thoughts on cities, public spaces, urbanism etcetera.

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