Research database

INCUBATORS - Incubators of Public Spaces

Duration:
05/05/2014 - 04/05/2017
Principal investigator(s):
Project type:
UE-funded research - JPI
Funding body:
COMMISSIONE EUROPEA
Project identification number:
2nd Joint Call for Proposals 2013

Abstract

Across Europe, urban areas are growing and regenerating themselves according to a combination of individual self-interest and strategic planning. These are well-intentioned but the results are unpredictable. The multiplication of individually satisfactory developments and interventions may still be collectively sub-optimal, as seen in the case of urban sprawl, which is a potent spatial expression of modern society. In this age of complexity, participatory planning has been discussed in theory but only partly realised in practice, as it can lack the practical tools to harness the full potential of distributed decision-making. People are seen as being actively engaged in systems as participants, and as a consequence can contribute their considerable knowledge and expertise to systems. Incubators address ways to harness the new technological possibilities and integrate them within multi-level planning systems to assist distributed decision-making in the self-organisation of places. The Project advances these challenges by linking a unique urban co-creative software, to e-participatory engagement applications and crowdfunding tools, involving co-creation in the making of public places by and for people. In this way, public spaces are transformed from empty spaces into a real context for social interaction, and would then become defined not only by the architecture that contains them, but also by the actions of the people that inhabit them.

Structures

Budget

Total cost: € 995,481.00
Total contribution: € 752,736.00
PoliTo total cost: € 240,328.00
PoliTo contribution: € 156,213.20