TRANSFORMING THE CITY

The 2nd Conference on Participatory Design “Transforming the City: Public Space & Environment, Inequalities & Democracy”, organised by Participatory Lab, the Laboratory of Spatial, Urban & Environmental Planning for Climate Change Adaptation, will take place on 20 -22 October at Plyfa space, in Athens.

After the 1st Conference in 2021 that brought together over 300 local and international participants, Participatory Lab returns to advance the debate around the issues of citizen participation in spatial development. While maintaining a core emphasis on participatory planning and citizen engagement, the focal point of the 2nd Conference shifts towards the contemporary city. It aims to comprehend, identify, map, and showcase urban transformations, inequalities, and contradictions. Moreover, it seeks to highlight explorations and experiments centred around policy co-production and participatory planning projects. These endeavours aim to alter the current state of the city, housing, and everyday life, ultimately working towards social and environmental justice. Presently, the compounding effects of the pandemic, geopolitical turmoil, energy crisis, deprivation, economic crisis, climate crisis, and the recent severe natural disasters have deepened urban inequalities and heightened the vulnerability of urban populations. The 2nd Participatory Lab Conference aims to broaden the debate on these issues while bridging the gap between research contributions and real-life field experiences, involving the application of participatory processes and tools, institutional policy implementation, and the positions of civil society groups. It aspires to achieve these objectives through a combination of plenary discussions, local and international examples, round tables, posters presentations, and participatory workshops, articulated around the following themes:

Public Space
Architecture and Urban Design, Regeneration, Urban Mobility-Walkability, Urban Commons

Environment and Climate Crisis
Impacts of climate change, Urban Green, Biodiversity, Green and Blue Infrastructure, Landscape

Socio-spatial Inequalities and Spatial Justice
Social and environmental inequalities and exclusions, Housing crisis, Energy poverty, Gender inequalities, Social movements

Urban Development and Governance
Institutional Framework, Austerity and unequal distribution of resources, Local Governance, European Policies, Sustainable Development Strategies

Participation in the conference is possible in person, free of charge and without the need for pre-registration.

More information

Με την υποστήριξη:
Γεωπονικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Τμήμα Χωροταξίας & Ανάπτυξης (ΤΜΧΑ), Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης
Σχολή Αγρονόμων & Τοπογράφων Μηχανικών – Μηχανικών Γεωπληροφορικής, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο

The project “Participatory LAB: Laboratory of Spatial, Urban and Environmental Participatory Planning for Climate Change Adaptation” is part of a broader initiative of the team Commonspace. The 2nd Scientific Conference of Participatory Lab is funded by the Green Fund under Priority Axis 2 of the funding programme “Extroverted Actions, Natural Environment and Innovative Actions 2023”.