Placemaking Europe

Vivian Doumpa

Urban planner and geographer

Position

Board member

Country

Greece

I am an urban planner and geographer, inspired by and appreciating the value of culture and creativity in our daily life. By mixing aspects and tools of placemaking, participatory planning and socio-cultural management, my heart finds its place in the field of creative placemaking, where arts and creativity are the means to engage and activate communities, and bring out the sense of place in co-creation.

I practice freelancing, collaborating on projects that have to do with culture and creativity, public space & placemaking, urban & spatial strategic development, transnational cooperation programs as well as research on issues related to street performers and urban music studies.

Skills and expertise

  • Civic participation and the relevant methods and tools around participatory decision making, planning, design, implementation and management are in the core of my practice, not only focused on placemaking, but also in a broader context.

What can you provide to the network

  • My passion and understanding of the cultural and creative field allows me to integrate interdisciplinary content and methods into projects of -seemingly- irrelevant framework.

The project you are most proud of

T¢pio: Creative Placemaking for Young Community Leaders is a catalyst for urban change on a neighbourhood level with a city-wide effect. We develop projects empowering and training high-school students to become active citizens and the placemakers of their own community.

Our aim is to re-imagine the school as an open platform of discussion and interaction for the whole neighbourhood, where students lead the transformation both inside and outside the school doors, having culture and creativity as our compass.

Besides that, we use creativity, placemaking and non-formal education methods and tools in order to engage local communities and city administrations into the city making movement and process.
We envision a sustainable, inclusive city, consisting of active communities and neighbourhoods, where self-organization meets government facilitation.

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