Description
The Green Urban Lab is a project carried out by the Urban Gorillas NGO together with two partners: the Architecture Department of the University of Nicosia and Dendros Ltd. The project intends to raise awareness on the importance of public spaces in developing socially sustainable cities through bottom-up initiatives that endorse participatory democracy. The Green Urban Lab takes the form of a public installation of a flexibly designed structure that will be placed at various locations in the cities. The project acts as a tool in regenerating urban public spaces in Cyprus through which a series of events, activities, workshops and research will take place. The research alongside the activities within the Green Urban Lab mainly focuses on the general public, youth and immigrants. It incorporates a series of observatory, qualitative and quantitative research to collect and evaluate the use of public spaces, citizens’ perceptions, views and needs. The research results will be published and shared with local authorities and the general public through the Urban Gorillas NGO website and will be further adopted elaborated for further actions in the cities.
Summary of project results
Public installations were placed at various locations in four cities in Cyprus. These installations were the main tools in regenerating a series of urban public spaces in Cyprus. The project has identified issues and opportunities related to public spaces and through research, and artistic public interventions; all actions initiating a public discussion regarding the importance of public spaces; raising questions of ownership, quality and potentials of such spaces for healthier and sustainable cities. Participatory action models included specialised workshops, an open call for ideas and participation of community groups; and a series of public events. The first workshop, Inflating the Public I, took place in September 2014; this workshop initiated the design process and permitted experimentation on inflatable structures through 5 pop-up installations in Nicosia. A second workshop, Inflating the Public II, followed in November 2014 focusing on finalising the design process for the programmed installations and was complemented by an add-on university seminar, Greening the Public, where students designed and built urban furniture using upcycled materials. All these workshops and classes were accompanied by specially design focus groups on the subject of public spaces. In total 1000 phone questionnaires, 297 on-site questionnaires, 98 post-event online questionnaires and 10 focus groups were carried out. The target groups for the GUL project, was the general public with a special attention to under-represented groups and youth, (that are actually primary users of public spaces). Young people (18-30 yrs) have been active participants in the project. Over 50 young people have been actively engaged and have collaboratively created various design proposals for the regeneration of public spaces. Several activities for young people have also been incorporated in the site-specific interventions in public spaces that took place in WP4 (skateboard sessions, workshops, board games, site-specific games, circus and performances). Under-represented groups in the society and in particular immigrants were also addressed during the project. The research team of Urban Gorillas has organised further focus groups with an informal immigrant group and has gathered data regarding the usage of public spaces. The Association of Recognised Refugees has participated actively in 4 sites during the organised nation-wide events by offering free food to the general public
Summary of bilateral results