civic spaces – Civic spaces

Comunalitat de Manresa (ES)

Comunalitat de Manresa is a community-based participatory initiative through which residents and local actors collaboratively address shared needs via mutual support, shared resources, and collective projects. Participation is open to individuals, groups, and organisations engaged in collective problem-solving and socio-economic collaboration, including co-designing community initiatives, taking part in mutual support activities, and contributing to intercooperation networks and the communal management of resources.

Decidim.Barcelona (ES)

The digital and democratic participation platform Decidim.Barcelona wants to give citizens a voice so that they can decide on the future of their environment. It is a digital space for a participatory process to debate, contrast and collect proposals. The tool is developed with free and open source software, so that it can be reused or improved.

Comunalitat del Güell de Girona (ES)

The Comunalitat del Güell promotes a people-centred economy rooted in community ties, social rights, and environmental care across the neighbourhoods it serves. It works to strengthen popular organisations, local economic initiatives, and mutual aid networks by supporting projects that ensure long-term stability and resilience. Central to this approach is the role of urban commons which act as key drivers of a community-based economy focused on people.

Ateneu Nou Barris (ES)

The Ateneu Popular Nou Barris is a public socio-cultural space managed through a community-led model that originated from a neighbourhood occupation in 1977. Rooted in this history of grassroots activism, the Ateneu embodies a long-standing commitment to collective self-management and civic participation.

Somos Comunidade (PT)

Launched in October 2021 in Encosta de São Vicente, in the former Matadouro area (Torres Vedras Municipality), Somos Comunidade is a community-based initiative that uses arts, communication, and social innovation to strengthen civic engagement and social cohesion. Through a local TV channel, a community newspaper, and participatory artistic workshops, the project works to reduce social isolation, empower residents, and foster a shared local cultural identity.

A Bolha (PT)

Founded around 2016 in Torres Vedras, A Bolha is a puppet-theatre association dedicated to exploring the relationship between humans and puppets as a creative, educational, and expressive medium. Through performances, workshops, and community-based activities, A Bolha promotes accessibility, cultural participation, and intergenerational learning, engaging children, young people, and adults in artistic experiences that combine imagination, craftsmanship, and social inclusion.

Porta do Bairro (PT)

Located in the Encosta de São Vicente requalification area, Porta do Bairro is a community house promoted by the Centro Social Paroquial de Torres Vedras that operates as an open and inclusive civic space within a regenerated urban environment.

Companhia de Ópera e Artes Contemporâneas – AREPO (PT)

Since 2019, AREPO has been an independent company dedicated to opera and contemporary arts in Torres Vedras. It promotes artistic innovation, cultural accessibility, and community engagement through experimental projects that merge tradition and modernity, fostering collaboration and new creative languages.

Ilú+Performact (PT)

Ilú – Associação de Dança – Teatro de Intervenção Urbana operates through a multidisciplinary model that includes:
artistic interventions, specialized programmes, professional development and capacity-building Initiatives.

Community Land Trust Giulio 34 (IT)

Turin Community Land Trust (Turin CLT) represents a socially driven, anti-speculative housing model that has been experimented in Aurora Neighbourhood, on a building located in Corso Giulio 34, an urban area interested by gentrification processes. This model promotes inclusion, social justice, and the right to housing for all while regenerating urban spaces and strengthening community bonds.

Pratone Parella (IT)

The Collaboration Pact for the Pratone Parella (Meadow Parella) is an agreement between the City of Turin and civic groups to jointly care for
and manage a large public green area of about 11,000 square meters located in Parella, a highly urbanized neighborhood in the western area of the city.
The care, animation and awareness-raising actions implemented by the community aim to enhance a green space taken away from building speculation.

Bagni Pubblici di Via Agliè (IT)

Barriera di Milano is historically one of Turin’s primary reception areas for new residents, currently distinguished as a highly multicultural district with a significant youth population. Key challenges include the concentration of poverty among specific social groups. Additionally, parts of the district are stigmatized and often perceived as insecure or prone to violence.

Via Baltea Community Hub (IT)

Via Baltea is a community hub located in Barriera di Milano, a historically working-class neighbourhood in northern Turin. Barriera di Milano is today a dense and multicultural urban area where community-based initiatives play a key role in strengthening local cohesion. Since 2014, Via Baltea has transformed a former printing house into a lively community hub blending commercial, cultural, and social functions.

Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario (IT)

The Casa del Quartiere di San Salvario is a vibrant community hub located in a dense, multicultural neighbourhood in central Turin, close to Porta Nuova railway station. Historically diverse and socially dynamic, the area hosts families, students, migrants, artists and small businesses. The Neighborhood House explicitly works to ensure equal access to cultural, educational, and social opportunities.

Portineria di Comunità di Porta Palazzo (IT)

The Portineria di comunità is a social space that mainly offers community services, allocated inside an old newsstand. It is located in the working-class neighborhood of Porta Palazzo. Although it is part of the city’s historic center, the neighborhood has historically been one of the districts that welcomed immigrants from Southern Italy throughout the twentieth century and currently hosts a large number of citizens of foreign origin.

COMALA (IT)

Comala is a very active multipurpose cultural space and youth gathering place in Turin, located in the area of the former La Marmora Barracks in the former working-class district of San Paolo. This area was repurposed in the 1990s and became home to the Polytechnic University of Turin, contributing to the change in the neighborhood’s social structure.

CUMIANA 15 (IT)

The Via Cumiana 15 Collaboration Pact concerns the old abadoned Lancia industrial warehouse, redeveloped as a covered multipurpose square in San Paolo neighborhood. In this space civil society in collaboration with the Municipality and District 3, offers educational, cultural, and sports activities for the local community. Over the years, the co-management of the spaces has also expanded to the adjacent street, which has been pedestrianized, and to the neighboring green areas.

Orti Generali (IT)

Orti Generali is a community urban gardening project located in the Mirafiori Sud neighborhood, a historic working-class district of Turin, within Parco Piemonte. As a peri-urban district where dense housing meets former agricultural riverbank land, the location is functional to experiment a project that reconnects residents with a long-overlooked landscape and strengthens their bond with the territory.

Cascina Roccafranca (IT)

Cascina Roccafranca is a multifunctional socio-cultural center located in the Mirafiori Nord neighborhood of Turin. It was founded in the 17th century as a farmhouse in the rural area of Turin. With urban expansion and the end of agricultural activity, it was abandoned until public redevelopment transformed it into a Neighbourhood House (Casa del Quartiere).

Giardino Pellegrino (IT)

The Giardino Pellegrino, also known as the Cardinal Michele Pellegrino Garden, is located in the Aurora district, near Piazza Borgo Dora and Porta Palazzo neighbourhoods in Turin, just a short walk from the famous Balon market. It is the only public garden in this area and has become, in recent years, a true point of reference for the local community.

Ateneu L’Harmonia (ES)

Ateneu L’Harmonia is a local social and cultural facility located in a renovated building of the former Fabra i Coats factory in Sant Andreu, Barcelona. It hosts and supports community-led activities that strengthen the neighborhood’s social, cultural, and leisure life, promote participation and collective action, and foster a more inclusive, creative, cohesive, and sustainable local community.

Espai Comunitari i Veïnal Autogestionat Can Batlló (ES)

The Self-Managed Community and Neighborhood Space of Can Batlló (Espai Comunitari i Veïnal Autogestionat Can Batlló) is a social and cultural facility located in different buildings, in the old textile factory of Can Batlló, in the Bordeta neighborhood. While the buildings are provided by the City Council, the management of all activities and processes.

Fabra i Coats (ES)

Fabra i Coats in Barcelona stands out for its innovative governance model, where a municipal technical team collaborates with the “Fabra Council,” a participatory platform bringing together workers, residents, and external entities.

Warsaw Social Innovation Laboratory “Synergy” (PL)

Warsaw Social Innovation Laboratory “Synergy” (Warszawskie Laboratorium Innowacji Społecznych „Synergia”, or WLIS „Synergia”) is an innovative space within Warsaw, aimed at initiating and implementing projects that improve the quality of life. It is located in a pre-war tenement house at 16 Markowska Street in the Praga-Północ district and operates within the structures of the Office of Social Aid and Projects of the City of Warsaw.

MAL Grójecka 109 (PL)

MAL Grójecka 109 is a local activity center in Warsaw’s Ochota district, providing a community space for residents to meet, organize workshops, events, and work on local initiatives.

Polo Civico del Quarticciolo (IT)

The Polo Civico del Quarticciolo (Quarticciolo Civic Hub) is one of Rome’s most advanced experiments in civic space activation, supported by a strong, collaborative network of local and institutional actors promoting community welfare and territorial development.

Bus de l’Initiative (F)

The Bus de l’Initiative was launched by the association CREATIVE in 2011 in Garges-lès-Gonesse, to facilitate access to entrepreneurship, employment and training for residents of priority neighbourhoods in the Roissy Pays de France urban area.

EMERGE – Associação Cultural (PT)

EMERGE embodies how local ecosystems can nurture accessible artistic creation for all citizens. The Association was founded in Torres Vedras in 2016 to promote emerging art in Portugal and beyond.

Open Jazdów Partnership (PL)

The Open Jazdów Partnership (Wolny Jazdów) focuses on community building through co-management, creating networks of mutual aid and integration. It functions as a grassroots center for culture and education, organizing thousands of events annually within an “urban laboratory” framework.

POLEIS – Polo Civico dell’Esquilino (IT)

POLEIS – the Polo Civico Esquilino (Esquilino Civic Hub) represents an innovative governance model for metropolitan social cohesion. Established in 2024 in a socially marginalised yet central district characterised by high ethnic diversity, the Hub channels strong community traditions of solidarity and mutualism into structured civic action.

Casa Internazionale delle Donne (IT)

Casa Internazionale delle Donne (the International Women’s House) has been operating for four decades in support and protection of women’s rights and freedoms. Since 1992, thanks to the support of the Coordination of Elected Women of the Municipality of Rome, the International Women’s House is an autonomous body in charge of promoting rights, culture, policies, knowledge and experiences produced by and for women.

Cinema Troisi (IT)

The Cinema Troisi is located in the historic district of Trastevere in the centre of Rome (Italy). Its inclusive and participatory model has earned national recognition, with multiple “Biglietto d’Oro del Cinema Italiano” awards, confirming the public’s strong appreciation and the effectiveness of its community-based approach.

The B.RIGHT SPACES Cartography of Civic Spaces

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