Paving the way for liveable cities in the BSR

What makes a city liveable? – How can a city design and provide positive environments to make it more liveable? – How can cities enable people to help shape the transformation process?

Answers to these questions are being explored in the project “Liveability – Designing Public Services for Resilient Neighbourhoods”. 11 organizations, including six municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region (Kiel, Gdynia, Guldborgsund, Kolding, Pori and Riga), are jointly developing a user-centred approach that will be tested in a neighbourhood in each partner city.

Creative design approaches make it possible to break down conventional structures and thought patterns, as well as to involve citizens in development processes and innovations. Public Interest Design (PID) is one such methodological framework that can be used to make cities, communities, and neighbourhoods more liveable. PID places public interest and the needs of citizens at the centre of the design processes, considering the physical, the social and the cultural dimensions to improve quality of life. Here, designing means problem solving. PID encompasses concrete design approaches and a mindset that always prioritises public participation.

The project officially kicked-off with a face-to-face meeting on 20-21 February 2023 in Kiel, Germany. The project partners discussed how the PID approach already is or could be applied in different cities. First principles of “Liveability” were drafted, which will now be further deepened in the respective working groups. In addition, further common goals for the project were discussed.

At the centre of “Liveability” is the question of what makes a city more liveable. The different backgrounds and professions of the partners (from administration, design, and art, as well as from other fields) made it possible to gain a holistic perspective to this question. Under the motto: “Up to 2026” – the partners proposed newspaper headlines and hashtags symbolizing their hope for the change that is to be achieved by the end of the project. Such as,

“Ground-breaking project brings more liveable cities for people in the Baltic Sea Region”
“From dying neighbourhoods to living places”
“100 liveable cities in Baltic Sea area”

or

#people_and_places
#connectingBSR

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