Civic labs and participation
86 places in the atlas
Citizen labs, civic innovation hubs, digital participation platforms and responses to depopulation rooted in social entrepreneurship.
Japan14
Ama Town / Oki Dozen海士町
Islas Oki, Shimane · Chugoku
A remote island that reversed depopulation under the motto "Nai mono wa nai" (be content with what there is): reforming its only high school to save…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceBONUS TRACKボーナストラック
Shimokitazawa, Tokio · Kanto
A low-rise complex on land freed by undergrounding the Odakyu line: live-work buildings with low rents, independent shops, a shared kitchen and a squ…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceFukuoka Growth Nextフクオカグロースネクスト
Fukuoka · Kyushu
The former Daimyo primary school, closed through school consolidation, renovated in 2017 into a startup support facility within the City of Fukuoka's…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceGrin Grin / Island Cityぐりんぐりん
Fukuoka · Kyushu
Toyo Ito's green-roofed landscape building in the central park of an artificial island, with greenhouses and gardening workshops: public architecture…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceHAGISO / hanare萩荘
Yanaka, Tokio · Kanto
A 1955 wooden apartment building saved from demolition and reborn as "Tokyo's smallest cultural complex".
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationNeighbourhood or villageHigashikawa, Town of Photography東川町
Higashikawa, Hokkaido · Hokkaido
A municipality that chose photography as the axis of its identity and development: an international festival, a national high school championship and…
VerifiedSee place →Spain12
Ateneus de Fabricació
Barcelona (red) · Catalonia
A public network of neighbourhood fablabs: digital fabrication at the service of schools, organisations and residents, with social return instead of…
VerifiedSee place →Civic design collectivesProjectCIVICS (mapa de innovación ciudadana)
Madrid · Nationwide
A collaborative cartography of thousands of citizen initiatives in cities across Spain and Ibero-America.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectDecide Madrid / Consul
Madrid · Madrid
The digital participation platform (proposals, participatory budgets, debates) whose free software, Consul, has been adopted by hundreds of instituti…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectDecidim
Barcelona (global) · Catalonia
Free digital infrastructure for participatory democracy, governed by its own community (Metadecidim) and used by hundreds of cities and institutions…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceEl Hueco
Soria · Castile and León
A social entrepreneurship ecosystem against depopulation: coworking, a rural accelerator and the Presura repopulation fair.
Partially verifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectFrena la Curva
Zaragoza (red global) · Aragon
A civic platform born in 48 hours at the start of the pandemic: a mutual aid map, an open innovation festival and replicas in some twenty countries.
VerifiedSee place →France16
Association Nationale des Tiers-LieuxANTL
París · Nationwide
The association that brings together France's third places and their regional and thematic networks, born in 2019 as a prefiguration structure and fo…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceAvvià, la fabrique à projetsAvvià
Bastia · Corse
A public project factory run by the Communauté d'Agglomération de Bastia, opened in June 2021 in the historic centre of the city, near the citadel.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceBLIIIDA
Metz · Grand Est
A former three-hectare bus depot in Metz, handed over to artists in 2013 during a Nuit Blanche and later transformed by the association TCRM Bliiida…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectFrance Tiers-LieuxGIP France Tiers-Lieux
París · Nationwide
The public interest grouping that coordinated state policy on third places, created in 2022 by the State, the ANCT and the national association.
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceHôtel Pasteur
Rennes · Bretagne
A former dentistry faculty from the late 19th century, without university use since 1967 and converted since March 2021 into a third place led by the…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceL'Hermitage
Autrêches · Hauts-de-France
A former 30-hectare farm estate in the Oise forest, bought in 2017 by a citizen initiative that brought together 850 people and a crowdfunding campai…
Partially verifiedSee place →Italy22
BASE Milano
Milán · Lombardia
BASE Milano occupies 12,000 square metres of the former Ansaldo factory, in the Tortona district, following a public competition run by the city coun…
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingNeighbourhood or villageCamini
Camini (Reggio Calabria) · Calabria
A village in the Aspromonte that was losing population to emigration until, from 2011, the social cooperative Jungi Mundu (founded in 1999) began hou…
Partially verifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationSpaceCasa Netural
Matera · Basilicata
The first rural coworking and coliving space in southern Italy, opened in Matera in 2012 before the city became European Capital of Culture.
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceCascina Roccafranca
Turín (Mirafiori Nord) · Piemonte
A former 17th-century farmhouse abandoned in the 1960s and recovered by the Turin city council's Progetto Urban, which reopened it as a casa del quar…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationNeighbourhood or villageCastel del Giudice
Castel del Giudice (Isernia) · Molise
A small mountain municipality in the Alto Molise that in the early 2000s launched, under mayor Lino Gentile, a regeneration model based on a combinat…
Partially verifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectComunità Energetica Rinnovabile di Ussaramanna
Ussaramanna (Sud Sardegna) · Sardegna
A small municipality in the Marmilla that in 2021 launched one of Italy's first renewable energy communities, driven and funded by the town council i…
Partially verifiedSee place →Thailand13
Bangkok City Labศูนย์ทดลองเมือง
Bangkok (Dusit) · Bangkok
A municipal lab created in December 2023 that tests cheap solutions to everyday problems before they become policy: furniture for street vendors in P…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectFondo comunitario de 200.000 baht de Bangkokโครงการชุมชนเข้มแข็ง
Bangkok · Bangkok
Since fiscal year 2023, each of Bangkok's roughly 2,000 registered communities can receive 200,000 baht for its own projects.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectChiang Mai Breath Councilสภาลมหายใจเชียงใหม่
Chiang Mai · North
Civic network set up in 2019 against smoke and fine particle pollution, northern Thailand's biggest public problem every dry season.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectCODI, Community Organizations Development Instituteสถาบันพัฒนาองค์กรชุมชน
Bangkok (Bang Kapi) · Nationwide
A public institution that channels state money directly to urban and rural community organisations, through grants and loans, so they can plan and ca…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectiLaw, Internet Dialogue on Law Reformไอลอว์
Bangkok (Chatuchak) · Nationwide
An organisation founded in 2009 to open the legislative process to citizens.
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectKhon Kaen Think Tank (KKTT) y el modelo Khon Kaen
Khon Kaen · Northeast (Isan)
The best-known attempt by a secondary Thai city to fund its own infrastructure without waiting for Bangkok.
Partially verifiedSee place →Laos9
Children's Cultural Centres Networkສູນວັດທະນະທຳເດັກ
Vientiane · Nationwide
A state network of centres where children and teenagers learn traditional dance, music and puppetry, drawing and reading.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectCommunity Learning Centres (CLC)
Vientiane (Chanthabouly) · Nationwide
A state network of village centres for literacy and adult education, strengthened by a 2020 decree.
Partially verifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectCommunity Radio for Developmentສະຖານີວິທະຍຸຊຸມຊົນ ເພື່ອການພັດທະນາ
Khoun (Xiengkhouang) · Nationwide
A network of small district FM stations, born in Khoun, that broadcast programmes on farming, health or migration in Lao and local languages, made by…
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectLao CSO Coordination Committee (LCCC)
Vientiane (Xaysettha) · Nationwide
The national network of Lao associations, with 94 members according to its website.
VerifiedSee place →Art and territorySpaceChildren's Cultural Centre (Luang Prabang)ສູນວັດທະນະທຳເດັກ
Luang Prabang · North
A public centre in the heritage old town where children and teenagers learn traditional dance and music, ipok rod puppetry, drawing and crafts.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectPADETC, Participatory Development Training Centre
Naxaythong (Vientiane) · Nationwide
A Lao training centre in participatory development for young people, teachers and local officials.
VerifiedSee place →Related events See the theme Democratic innovation →See the theme Civic tech and digital democracy →See the theme Civic design and citizen labs →
Cascais, European Capital of Democracy 2026Cascais, Capital Europeia da Democracia 2026
Cascais · Portugal
Cascais's democracy year, launched on 5 March 2026, with the ACT NOW Mayors' Conference (May 2026) and the Innovation in Politics Awards gala (30 Oct…
OngoingSee the event →7 to 10 October 2026Democratic innovation2026 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, Gaborone
Gaborone · Botswana
First edition of the forum in Southern Africa, at the University of Botswana (Gaborone), with an optional pre-programme on 6 and 7 October.
OngoingSee the event →7 to 10 October 2026Civic design and citizen labsOctoberMake 2026, Rennes
Rennes · France
Tenth edition, co-organised with LabFab, under the theme 'Des makers et des lieux face à l'urgence': how fablabs and maker spaces respond to climate,…
OngoingSee the event →What they share: Prototyping happens in public, with neighbours as producers rather than audience.