Our Projects/

Designing Participatory Spaces.

Innovation in Placemaking and Capacity Building.

Designing Participatory Spaces is an international collaboration between STPLN in Malmö and Ankara Aks in Türkiye exploring how participatory design, art, and placemaking can strengthen democracy, dialogue, and social cohesion. Through workshops, collaborative prototyping, and cross-cultural exchange, the project empowers cultural and creative professionals to develop new methods for inclusive community engagement.

Funded as a seed initiative for long-term international cooperation, the project focuses on building sustainable tools and methodologies that can be adapted across different cultural contexts.

About the project.

Participatory Placemaking

The project explores how artists, designers, architects, and cultural workers can actively involve communities in shaping public spaces and civic life. Through collaborative methods and design-led experimentation, participants co-create ideas, prototypes, and frameworks that encourage participation, accessibility, and collective ownership.

Cross-Cultural Collaboration

Based between Malmö and Ankara, the project creates space for knowledge exchange between Swedish and Turkish cultural practitioners. By sharing local perspectives, experiences, and challenges, participants develop new approaches to placemaking that respond to social, political, and environmental realities in both contexts.

Learning Through Practice

The methodology is rooted in hands-on collaboration. Workshops, mapping exercises, site visits, and prototyping sessions allow participants to test ideas in real environments while developing practical skills in participatory design, facilitation, and community engagement.

Key Activities

  • Participatory workshops and collaborative design sessions

  • Placemaking methods including DreamIt, WalkIt, and OrderIt

  • Site visits and community mapping

  • Cross-cultural exchange between Malmö and Ankara

  • Development of participatory design tools and methodologies

  • Creation of a collaborative prototype for public space transformation

  • Publication of a Participatory Design Booklet documenting methods and outcomes