SHARED CITIES will improve the urban environment in six European countries within four years

The ambitious cultural project Shared Cities: Creative Momentum is starting right now, uniting eleven partners from seven major cities in Central Europe: Berlin, Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Katowice, Prague, and Warsaw. Its aim is to bring innovative visions and bold solutions for a better future of Central European cities and their planning. Over four years, around 150 cultural, architectural, and artistic events will take place, bringing together individuals and communities in these cities and creating shared urban spaces. The project, financially supported by the EU program Creative Europe, is led by the Goethe-Institut, Czech Centers, and reSITE.

Who: 11 partners from 6 countries
What: culture, architecture, urbanism, art, and design
How: festivals, exhibitions, discussions, residency programs, research, and films
Where: Berlin, Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Katowice, Prague, and Warsaw
When: June 2016 – February 2020

“Culture and urban space, as well as community involvement, sharing, and exchanging good practices are key themes of the Goethe-Institut. Within the Shared Cities project, we will merge these themes into a new collaboration among urban actors from the private and public sectors, as well as governmental and non-governmental sectors,” explained Jakob Ráček, program director of the Goethe-Institut for Central and Eastern Europe.

How to use sharing, collaboration, and creativity to improve the urban environment
“Our ambition is to create and maintain a creative discourse at the intersection of architecture, art, urbanism, and the sharing economy, thereby benefiting urban residents. We want to show them that their participation and collaboration are crucial for creating a valuable urban environment that is pleasant to live in,” states reSITE director Martin Barry.

Shared Cities seeks to highlight opportunities for creative solutions to current problems in our cities, such as deficiencies in investments in civic amenities, insufficient transparency and accountability in decision-making processes, rising living costs, and housing unavailability. Anyone can participate, as the project builds on the creative potential of local residents, neighborhood communities, artists, or cultural institutions.

How to get involved?
As part of Shared Cities: Creative Momentum, over 150 public and professional events will take place: festivals, films, exhibitions, workshops, and artistic residencies. The key themes will always be sharing, cultural development, urban planning, and quality architecture. “Our activities combine international experience with knowledge of local conditions in Central European cities. We are creating prototypes for future solutions that are based not on the mere projection of national culture, but on meaningful international cultural cooperation,” comments Kamil Pavelka from Czech Centers.

The program will include initiatives such as “planning games,” where architects and citizens will meet to discuss proposals for solving issues in the given city. “Hacking street furniture” will invite artists and the public to propose radically new forms and uses of urban furniture. Five additional extensive activities concerning urban design will address the pressing issues of city life. For example, a new digital map will be created in Katowice, based on research about which institutions and informal actors are involved in the cultural and creative sectors in the city. Bratislava will explore new strategies for revitalizing unused buildings from the communist era and engaging the public in redesigning the largest square in the Slovak capital, Námestie SNP. Budapest will focus on spreading the model of participatory governance and test ways in which non-governmental organizations can contribute to the revitalization of the former industrial area on Csepel Island using both online and offline methods of participation. Through events, publications, exhibitions, and films, the consortium of partners will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the sharing economy, as well as the role of the free market and new technologies where they influence our everyday urban life.

In the so-called curatorial laboratory, experts and the public will meet and discuss how cutting-edge new media can be utilized for architecture and urban design, how to maximize the available data for greater public engagement, and how to convey architecture to citizens through film. They will also seek original ways to engagingly publish and display outputs and core information related to this topic.

Detailed information about the Shared Cities: Creative Momentum project will be available on a joint web platform www.sharedcities.eu by the end of the year. Starting in 2017, an annual report will summarize the four-year efforts of all participating partners. This major international project effort will ultimately be presented in a traveling exhibition with a film component within the global network of the Goethe-Institut and Czech Centers.

Co-funded by the European Union program Creative Europe.

Partners of the Shared Cities: Creative Momentum project

Prague
- Goethe-Institut Czech Republic
- Czech Centers
- reSITE

Belgrade
- Društvo arhitekata Beograda (Association of Belgrade Architects)

Berlin
- KUNSTrePUBLIK

Bratislava
- Stará Tržnica
- The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava

Budapest
- KÉK: Kortárs Építészeti Központ (Center for Contemporary Architecture KÉK)
- Mindspace, a non-profit organization for urban projects

Katowice
- Miasto Ogrodów, a municipal cultural organization

Warsaw
- Res Publica, a specialized publishing house

You can follow project activities and results here:
Website (from October 2016)
#SharedCities
Instagram
Twitter