Throughout Europe, civic spaces serve as vital arenas for democratic life… These are the places, the platforms, the events, where individuals and communities converge to engage, organise, innovate, express dissent, and collectively envision the future. These spaces are not fixed; they transform over time, thriving in some contexts while facing constraints from political, social, or economic pressures in others.
Capturing their dynamics demands more than isolated case studies or static snapshots; it calls for a framework that reflects their complexity, interconnectedness, and continual evolution.
The B.RIGHT SPACES CARTOGRAPHY responds to this need, offering a living, interactive, and accessible map that charts these spaces as a shared landscape of civic activity, fostering understanding, visibility, and dialogue across Europe’s diverse communities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 – Associação de Dança – Teatro de Intervenção Urbana operates through a multidisciplinary model that includes:
artistic interventions, specialized programmes, professional development and capacity-building Initiatives.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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” (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 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.
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.
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.
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.