Redesign of public spaces, Edition 2

Overview

From December 2019 to February 2020, SmartUp designed and facilitated, through SkopjeLab, a two-round co-creation process in which 35 participants, guided by eight mentors, co-designed small public spaces in Skopje. Mentors and participants were recruited by public call, every team began with fieldwork, and the process produced nine detailed concept designs.

After the first edition, SmartUp changed the method: instead of a research team producing concepts, it opened the design stage to the public. We mapped sites with the City and the local professional community, kept the creative process deliberately independent, and presented the first concepts openly in the City Council hall. Mixed teams of students, young professionals and citizens worked with architects, landscape designers and an energy-efficiency engineer, and the concepts were published online as a basis for future investment.

The challenge

Leftover spaces next to busy roads

The sites came from the more than 70 locations residents proposed in the first edition. They were street ends, courtyards and small parks beside heavy traffic, neglected or underused, and chosen because they were frequently used and could help ease urban heat. Greening was meant to be central to every design.

Young talent and city decisions

The initiative set out to give architecture students and young professionals a way into local design work and to show the City what they can contribute.

Staying independent while working with the City

The City supported the work, but the creative process was left independent so mentors could test different approaches. Support from citizens and the private sector would still be needed to build anything.

Activities and methods

The workshops combined fieldwork with design, led by mentors. Round 1 was held at the Skopje Urban Living Lab in the Old Bazaar.

Co-creation & innovation processes. Recruitment by public call. Calls for mentors were published on 25 November 2019 and 29 January 2020. Calls for participants (students, young professionals and "concerned citizens of any occupation", applying through an online form) followed on 3 December 2019 and 30 January 2020. Mentors were architects, landscape designers and an energy-efficiency engineer, and second-round mentors were offered a fee under an author contract.
Co-creation & innovation processes. Two rounds of four-day workshops. Round 1 (14-15 and 21-22 December 2019): 4 mentors and 17 students and high-school pupils in three groups, one site each. Round 2 (15-16 and 22-23 February 2020): 18 participants in mixed teams worked on dead-end street ends facing Ilindenska boulevard and produced six concepts for five streets (Kole Nedelkovski had two versions).
Research, insight & strategy. Fieldwork on real street life: observation, surveys, interviews, photo and video documentation, and mapping of daytime and night-time activity, the behaviour of people, animals and nature, and the physical setting. Up to five extra days were available for fieldwork per round.
Co-creation & innovation processes. Each team built a design strategy for its space and was encouraged to try new urban atmospheres, media and methods, with greening as the central element. The first three concepts were presented to officials and residents in the City Council hall on 21 January 2020 for final comments.
Capacity building & learning. Participants were offered experience in local research, public space design, urban furniture design and teamwork in mixed teams, and a certificate.
Pilots, implementation & scaling. The process ended with detailed concept designs. Final concepts were published online in April 2020 with a call to the private sector and donors for urban equipment, plants and maintenance.

Impact and learning

Nine detailed concept designs. Three from the December round (Park Forum, the Goce Delchev dormitory yard, Ballet Square) and six from the February round (Kole Nedelkovski in two versions, 8 Mart, Krsto Baik, Kukushka, Blagoja Strachkov).

35 participants and 8 mentors. 17 people took part in the December round and 18 in February.

A tested model of cooperation. The process tested how the City and citizens can co-design together, with mentors and participants chosen openly by public call.

The method in short. Public calls, mixed teams, fieldwork first, then design, then open presentation and publication.

Learning. According to the SkopjeLab coordinator, the City was open and trusting, but more support was needed from citizens in promoting such events, and from the private sector for implementation.