Urban Jamming is a co-design project aimed to create collaborative networks to find alternative, low-cost and creative solutions to reactivate urban voids across Europe. The process is lean and fast, it has been already tested in Palermo through a pilot called Sant’Anna Jamming and consists in 3 steps: DESIGN of solutions and reactivation strategies; PARTICIPATION of local community; IMPLEMENTATION by Public Administration.

3 EU Cities

Urban Jamming offers a new perspective to urban planning in EU cities: starting from the analysis of an urban void, the real challenge is to help the different urban actors who use it on a daily basis, finding new creative solutions for its reactivation. The approach, based on co-design and participation brings a brand new standard in urban decision-making. Here it’s not only Public Administration that plans interventions, but also citizens expressing needs over a specific area of their city.

The project aims at reducing the waste of energy and resources for urban interventions, promoting an easy and low-cost format to be used in at least 3 EU cities producing changes with durable effects. Among these, the creation of networks at city level involving citizens, professionals and PA and on a larger scale networks of cities sharing results and experiences to be collected in reports and publications in order to introduce the format to other similar contexts.

CALL TO ACTION: an online call will be launched to find 3 urban voids in 3 cities across Europe where to implement the format. WORKSHOPS: in cooperation with local organizations and Public Administrations willing to finance the interventions, 48hours workshops involving students and citizens will be organized to design strategies and solutions to reactivate the spaces. IMPLEMENTATION: the ideas developed will be uploaded on a dedicated web platform and voted by the local community. The most voted solutions will be presented to the Municipalities that will select the most valuable to be financed and realized. RECOMMENDATIONS: results will be collected in order to highlight needs, achievements, potentials and limitations to produce guidelines for other cities willing to use the format.

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Across Europe each country has cities with abandoned or empty spaces where inhabitants would like to see something original and useful that can improve their daily habits. Citizens are are active part and beneficiaries of the Urban Jamming process, since they are called to create strategies and give new perspectives and fresh tools to the PA, producing value for the whole community.

The innovation of Urban Jamming is in the approach based on co-design, participation and direct dialogue with the Public Administration and on its potential application. With a low-budget and site-specific solutions, the model can be easily scaled and adapted to any urban context that requires reactivation and re-design, thus in every single city in every EU country without social and economic distinction.

Personnel costs: 12.000 €; Travel and accommodation: 21.000€; Web Platform: 9000 €; Research & Context Analysis: 6000€; Workshop materials: 3000 €; Communication and engagement of cities and communities: 7500 €; Other costs: 1500€.

We would like to get feedbacks and hear about innovative initiatives and models that correspond to our idea. We would be happy to get in touch with public and private organizations in different EU countries to include them in our network and exchange good practices and inspirational inputs.