All Things Urban

**What is it about?** Participatory processes from multidisciplinary approach are necessary to create more inclusive and sustainable cities. In 3 days of workshop, we will co-create with the participants a tool to understand, map, and enhance more inclusive public spaces in the city of Bari. It is all about understanding that every citizen is an agent for sustainable change. Different people experience the city in different ways. We will explore the city from various lenses (women, men, kids, elderly, etc...) to understand their perspectives and answer questions like: if you were 95cm (the average height of a healthy 3-year-old) what would you change in your city? The idea is to develop tactical, fast-paced and practical tools that can be used by any citizen to analyze the spaces where they live and understand how the built environment affects every aspect of our lives. To create more inclusive and sustainable cities, we need more informed, proactive and committed citizens. Our workshop will focus on teaching people the practices to explore the city, their daily routes and re-imagine and re-invent their spaces to create better cities for all. To create inclusive cities we need to build empathy first. **What will we work on?** We want to raise awareness about the fundamental role that users of public spaces should play in urban development and empower them by collaboratively create urban practices to be reproduced in any place and time. During the workshop, we will work on: - Participative methodologies - The role of users in urban development - Creative initiatives to empower locals and users - Collaborative mapping technique - Inclusive practices in urban development - Place-making as an effective tool for the co-creation of shared spaces. By the end of the workshop, a collective evaluation will take place to asses the project, its implementation, effectiveness, relevance, and impact as well as the following steps that need to be taken to engage Bari population and authorities in order to scale up this practices. **How does it work?** The workshop is defined by a collaborative involvement of the participants with the residents in Bari. The co-creation of the workshop itself and the final product foster the effectiveness of the tool for long-term quality of public spaces as well as promoting sustainable practice for the profession of the planner as a mediator of button-up and top-down processes. The first day will be divided into two parts: First, a theoretical explanation and second an interactive walkshop. For the theoretical part, we will foster an analysis on urban development and design of spaces through participatory practices to understand the impact on cities and communities. Additionally, we will reflect on cases that have been used to diminish exclusivity in public areas: co-creation theories will be experience in several cases where we will highlight the challenges that children face in daily interaction with public spaces and how those challenges are extend to their care givers (adults). This will be perceived using different methodologies, (the City at Eye Level for Kids) and tools (walkshop), which will help us to explore the city. In the second day, the participants will share their experiences about the walkshop and explain if they see the city differently. What changes would they make in the space in order to improve their lifestyle and social sphere? Based on this brainstorm, we will co-create an open-source mapping tool to empower them as citizens and to raise their awareness about the use of public areas with the aim of becoming part of the urban development process and everyday city making. On day three, we will use the developed tool to choose the location for a collective intervention. By sharing our experiences on placemaking, we will encourage the participants to intervene in the street to improve the inclusivity and sustainability of the space with a tactical urbanism approach. The final product should be reflected in an accessible online platform of gathered urban data and the experience of its instant applicability.

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Educational Institute, Centre for Research and Consultancy — in Art and Technology — for Industry, Trade and Handicraft (digital or not). We’re a community of digital artisans, makers, artists, designers, programmers, pirates, dreamers and innovators. We act together, testing new research, teaching, mentoring, co-living practices and models. We are involved with: research for public and private interest; teaching for learners, freelancers and managers of all ages. We design social and technological innovation.