Participatory urbanism
58 places in the atlas
Planning, public space design or regeneration processes with real neighbourhood participation, from Japanese machizukuri to vacant lot programmes and tactical urbanism.
Japan9
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 →Participatory urbanismSpaceFurano Marcheフラノマルシェ
Furano, Hokkaido · Hokkaido
A food and retail complex on the site of a relocated hospital, a national symbol of citizen-led town centre revitalisation, combining local produce,…
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 →Art and territoryProjectKumamoto Artpolisくまもとアートポリス
Kumamoto · Kyushu
A programme commissioning signature public architecture (Ando, Ito, Sejima) with independent curatorship and workshops between architects and residen…
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismNeighbourhood or villagemachimori / Atami Ginza熱海銀座
Atami, Shizuoka · Chubu
Bottom-up regeneration of central Atami after its tourism bubble collapsed: vacant premises renovated by young entrepreneurs and "renovation machizuk…
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismNeighbourhood or villageMachizukuri de Ishinomaki y Kesennuma石巻・気仙沼
Miyagi · Tohoku
Participatory reconstruction after the tsunami: local initiatives in central Ishinomaki and the regeneration of Kesennuma's fishing cultural landscap…
VerifiedSee place →Spain4
El Campo de Cebada
La Latina, Madrid · Madrid
The lot of the demolished La Latina sports centre, ceded to neighbours and run by assembly for seven years: garden, sport, cinema, assemblies and sel…
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectEstonoesunsolar
Zaragoza · Aragon
A programme that turned dozens of vacant lots into squares, gardens and courts through employment plans, with neighbourhood decision processes.
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceSolar Corona
El Carmen, Valencia · Valencian Community
A private lot ceded and activated by collectives and neighbours of El Carmen as a community space for culture, cinema and encounter.
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectSuperilles (supermanzanas)
Barcelona · Catalonia
Reorganising traffic into superblocks to give streets back to pedestrians, play and greenery.
VerifiedSee place →France7
Ateliers Médicis
Clichy-sous-Bois · Île-de-France
A public cultural institution created in 2015 in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil, the municipalities that symbolised the 2005 riots, to host artist…
Partially verifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismSpaceBase 11/19
Loos-en-Gohelle · Hauts-de-France
A former mine pit closed in 1986 in the town of Loos-en-Gohelle, converted into a reference hub for sustainable development with intensive resident p…
Partially verifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectBruit du Frigo
Bordeaux · Nouvelle-Aquitaine
An urban creation collective founded in 1997 by architects, with roots in street workshops from the mid-1990s.
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancySpaceLes Grands Voisins
París · Île-de-France
Temporary occupation of a former 3.4-hectare Paris hospital between 2015 and 2020, run by the collectives Aurore, Plateau Urbain and Yes We Camp.
VerifiedSee place →Commons and belongingSpaceLes Quatre Saisons
Rouen · Normandie
An intergenerational residence of 35 homes in the Grand-Mare district of Rouen, driven since 2016 by the neighbourhood association BVGM and built tog…
Partially verifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismNeighbourhood or villageSaillans, democracia participativa municipal
Saillans · Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Between 2014 and 2020, a citizens' list with no leader or fixed manifesto governed this Drôme municipality using participatory democracy methods: com…
Partially verifiedSee place →Italy11
Casa delle AgriCulture Tullia e Gino
Castiglione d'Otranto (Lecce) · Puglia
An association founded in 2013 in a village in the Salento to reclaim more than fifteen hectares of abandoned land lent free of charge by their owner…
VerifiedSee place →Art and territoryProjectCvtà Street Fest
Civitacampomarano (Campobasso) · Molise
An international urban art festival that since 2016 has brought murals by artists from around the world to the façades of a medieval Molise village e…
VerifiedSee place →Art and territorySpaceFarm Cultural Park
Favara (Agrigento) · Sicilia
A contemporary art centre created in 2010 by notary Andrea Bartoli and lawyer Florinda Saieva in the historic centre of Favara, five months after the…
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismSpaceGiardino ex Caserme Duca d'Aosta
Trento · Trentino-Alto Adige
In 2024, during Trento's year as European Volunteering Capital, the San Giuseppe Santa Chiara district ran a participatory process to revalue the gar…
VerifiedSee place →Civic foodSpaceGiardino Liberato di Materdei
Nápoles · Campania
A former garden of an abandoned convent in the Materdei district, reclaimed around 2012 by residents and collectives who turned it into a vegetable g…
Partially verifiedSee place →Civic design collectivesProjectLamaLAMA Impresa Sociale
Florencia (FI) · Toscana
LAMA is a Florentine cooperative founded in 2007 that specialises in public policy design, participatory processes, placemaking and the management of…
Partially verifiedSee place →Thailand20
Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) y Community Architects Network (CAN)
Bangkok (Wang Thonglang) · Nationwide
An Asian network founded in 1989 that supports urban poor savings groups and their federations so they can negotiate land and housing with government…
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectBaan Mankong, programa de vivienda seguraบ้านมั่นคง
Bangkok (Bang Kapi) · Nationwide
A national programme for upgrading informal settlements, launched in 2003.
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectBaan Mankong a escala de ciudad en Uttaraditบ้านมั่นคง อุตรดิตถ์
Uttaradit · North
One of the city-wide Baan Mankong pilots.
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismNeighbourhood or villageComunidades del canal Bang Buaชุมชนริมคลองบางบัว
Bangkok (Bang Khen y Chatuchak) · Bangkok
About a dozen informal settlements along the Bang Bua canal, home to some 3,400 families, joined the Baan Mankong programme in 2004.
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 →Participatory urbanismProjectVivienda en los canales Lat Phrao y Prem Prachakornบ้านมั่นคงริมคลอง
Bangkok (Khlong Lat Phrao) · Bangkok
An extension of the Bang Bua model to the Lat Phrao and Prem Prachakorn canals, tied since 2016 to flood works: some 13,000 families in 88 informal c…
VerifiedSee place →Laos7
Ban Mano Pond Committee
Luang Prabang · North
Luang Prabang has a network of urban ponds being filled in or polluted in a city without sewers: according to Gret, there were 183 in 1999 and 120 re…
Partially verifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismNeighbourhood or villageChampasak and Vat Phouວັດພູ
Champasak · South
A 39,000 ha cultural landscape, World Heritage since 2001, home to more than 50 villages and the town of Champasak.
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismProjectMaison du Patrimoine (Luang Prabang)
Luang Prabang · North
A technical office created by decree in 1996, after the town's World Heritage listing, with the cooperation of Chinon and the Centre region.
VerifiedSee place →Participatory urbanismSpaceNam Phouສວນນ້ຳພຸຊຽງຍືນ
Vientiane (Chanthabouly) · Vientiane
A square with a fountain on the old esplanade of the morning market.
VerifiedSee place →Civic labs and participationProjectPoverty Reduction Fund (PRF)
Vientiane (Chanthabouly) · Nationwide
The country's largest community-driven development programme: villages set priorities in assembly, defend their proposals before the district and the…
VerifiedSee place →Reuse of vacancyNeighbourhood or villageSavannakhet Old Town
Kaysone Phomvihane (Savannakhet) · Central
A colonial old town on the Mekong, with Lao, French and Franco-Chinese architecture, almost all private and badly run down in 2018.
Partially verifiedSee place →Related events See the theme Participatory urbanism and placemaking →
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 →10 to 12 October 2026Participatory urbanism and placemakingRenovation School Shonan Oba 2026 (Fujisawa)リノベーションスクール@湘南大庭2026
Fujisawa · Japan
First school in Shonan Oba, a large housing estate in Fujisawa, 10 to 12 October 2026 (pre-session on 30 September).
OngoingSee the event →12 to 14 October 2026Participatory urbanism and placemakingEuropean Week of Regions and Cities 2026
Bruselas · Belgium
24th edition, fully in person in Brussels, under the motto 'Strong regions, strong Europe' with over 110 sessions on how cohesion policy can help eve…
See the event →What they share: The plan is not a document but a conversation: the neighbourhood takes part in deciding and also in making.