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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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