Cross-cultural placemaking toolkit by STPLN & Aks Creative Hub. Features Dream It, Walk It, Order It methodology for inclusive community engagement. Funded by Swedish Institute. New European Bauhaus.
Designing Participatory Spaces was a cross-cultural collaboration between STPLN (Malmö, Sweden) and Aks Creative Hub, supported by the Swedish Institute.
The project explored how participatory design and placemaking can be used as tools for social innovation, creativity, and democracy-building. By connecting designers, artists, urban planners, and community members, the initiative aims to imagine new ways of shaping public spaces — collaboratively, inclusively, and playfully.
Over the course of a year, the project developed and tested a participatory design method, applied in Malmö, Sweden. The method engages people in three creative steps — dreaming, mapping, and defining — to collect ideas and insights about how spaces can better respond to community needs.
The participatory design method developed within the project draws inspiration from everyday actions — speaking, moving, and ordering — turning them into playful tools for urban co-creation.
Dream It: Participants take the stage to share their dreams, visions, and ideas about what a space could become. This step invites imagination, storytelling, and emotional connection to place.
Walk It: People explore and map the site, identifying what they love, what’s missing, and what could change. It helps ground dreams in real, lived experiences.
Order It: Through a playful “idea bar” setup, participants order their wishes for the space from a menu — small fixes, big transformations, or joyful additions.
Together, these steps build a layered understanding of how communities perceive and wish to transform their environments.
