Placemaking in Croatia
What has been learned and where to go from here?
Placemaking isn’t an unfamiliar form of co-creation in public space for KLIK, as we have managed Living Streets activities in Križevci, but the PLACE project has been an eye opening and mind shifting experience for our team and participants in Croatia.
Placemaking is a process which shapes our space according to the needs and wishes of the users; and shapes places that people like, where they socialize, where they are active, have fun and create memories. In Croatia, placemaking trainings and workshops were held in three very
different cities: capital city Zagreb, rural town Križevci and seaside city Šibenik. We wanted to explore how citizens in different locations in the same country perceive space and its role in their lives.
During the first training session in Zagreb, participants played the ‘Place game’ and came up with numerous ideas on how to use space more rather than how to change it physically. They talked about school children performing music, art fairs, little art festivals and shows. This only proves how our emotions and ideas of usefulness of space guides us in the placemaking process, not necessarily the restrictions or more formal interventions of built environment. Examples local change makers shared in the session were inspiring and moving, putting emphasis on community engagement and interaction between public spaces and individuals.
But is that enough? Are there enough conscious efforts to impact our surroundings and how can we use placemaking to inspire those willing to act? With hopefulness that our introductory session in Zagreb inspired enough individuals to inspire more of those outside of the group, we proceeded to plan the next session.
In Šibenik we partnered up with ODRAZ and took it a step further. Participants were split into five groups and had an assignment to observe one location per group. They used the Place Game tool to acquire relevant data on their space and analyzed it.
After the general assessment, participants came up with a group vision and possible solutions for further implementation. Some of them were about building bicycle garages, a direct bus line from student housing to campus, greening of public space, turning parking spaces into parklets for socializing, parks and playgrounds. The ideas were presented to general public and representatives of the local government, who showed interest and promised to consider them in future development plans.
This time placemaking activities had the opposite impact than that in Zagreb, probably because of local needs and priorities. They were focused more on built environment and service of space to general public, rather than activities that can happen in the space.
These two sessions gave us some insight that aligned with what we learned during our previous Living Streets experience - individuals and groups that are generally indifferent or satisfied with existing infrastructure tend to imagine what they can do in the space, and those who are unsatisfied or more focused on city infrastructureare more oriented on imagining what they can do with the space.
Then, in Križevci, we decided to implement placemaking in the local urban garden, in cooperation with NGO Magda. First we held a workshop based on Placemaking tools, where participants decided to create raised beds and a plateau for people with movement issues and disabilities, giving them an opportunity to participate in urban gardening. We then were successfully awarded funds for implementation. In January, the plateau and raised beds were in place and ready for use. This small, but meaningful, action gave another dimension to what a local group of citizens can easily achieve through placemaking processes, just by being guided by placemaking methods.
To build on that, we decided to have a workshop in the local primary school, as we were approached by a teacher inspired by other placemaking activities of the PLACE project.
Teachers had noticed that students spend a lot of time indoors while the school grounds stand empty and under-utilized. We held a training on placemaking methods and tools with the teachers, putting emphasis on potential and possibilities of placemaking. Teachers were very interested in the ‘Place Game’ and decided to use the tool with their students to get input on how they would design the space around school to suit their needs. After all, the whole point is for the students to want to spend more time outside. Not to only talk about tools, we used the ‘box of wishes‘ where teachers were asked to visualize the space around school in the state it is now and imagine what they would do with it to make it more useful for students and them.
Even though this PLACE project lasted a short time, considering the work that is needed to revitalize public spaces, we have managed to start sparks that will hopefully burn brighter as time passes. For the ideas of our participants to really translate into significant action and interventions, there is an obvious need for further financial support.
From where should that funding come? Well, we can all apply to EU programmes and hope for the best, but the most important funds would need to come from inside communities. Local governments, businesses and anyone else residing in the community need to be encouraged to support these kinds of actions - then they will care more about it, not forget it and value it, take pride in it. ‘Yes, I did that’. Because you can do that, all of us can: we can make our spaces to suit us and make us happy. There is a definite need for it, and if anything is learned from this project is that there is demand from citizens and community organisations as well.
What else is needed for placemaking activities to spread more widely across Croatia? Well, more projects like this for sure, that can also go further in providing trainings and guidance from those who have done it in the past and keep doing it today.
To bring our communities as close as possible to the aspirations of Thriving communities, we need to keep building the power of civic imagination, community led initiatives and spaces for action to take place. That is possible only through collective effort.
The challenges of bringing collective action together are many, but there are also inspiring initiatives, groups and individuals that keep fighting the good fight and we must harness it. Speaking about it, sharing between our peers and friends, communicating directly with our local changemakers (and there are so many hiding in plain sight, if we take the time to look) on sparking the ideas we often do not dare to share- or dream about- are all the ways we can help make placemaking come to life in our communities.
So let’s think, talk and inspire. Croatia is on its way to make the places we reside in adapted to our needs, one city at a time, one imagination at time - with a little help from us and you.
While planning for future activities and new projects is underway, we still return to experience of PLACE to conjure inspiration for our community, and for lessons on how to involve them and how to bring value to public space.
In conclusion, we leave you with this summary of key learnings gathered throughout PLACE project activities which can be summarized in three points:
- Ideation of space use and place value depends on priorities and satisfaction of local community members
- Individuals mostly take into consideration how public space can bring value to whole community, rather than themselves
- Change doesn’t need to be permanent to be meaningful.
- There is clear need and demand for more community placemaking in Croatia, which needs to be met with more, well-funded placemaking support initiatives.
This work was led by KLIK and undertaken through the PLACE project, which is funded through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme of the European Union. Other PLACE project partners are Korimako, PUSH and Placemaking Europe.
The PLACE project is organised as part of the Placemaking for Civic Imagination programme under the Thriving Communities initiative — as we believe that placemaking is vital to the overall process of creating radical community change.
