Project responds to the needs of civil society, NGOs, cultural and social institutions focusing on marginalized groups (people with disabilities, seniors, mothers and kids) in Kairouan, Tunisia, to ensure equal access to public space, foster social inclusion and boost public participation of the vulnerable social groups by creating sustainable links between artistic and social focused actors on local level, engaging young architects in practical artistic mission with social objectives.
Project activities boost capacity of social and cultural focused NGOs, offering a new approach to be applied in their work: social NGOs can help their beneficiaries in social inclusion process while using art as a tool of therapy, raising their voice to the debate on daily faced culture and public space limitations. The innovative public consultations used during the project implementation additionally enhanced the need of public participation of all social groups in process of public space development, strengthen the dialogue between all actors of change and increase perception of public space as collective responsibility for public domain.
The realization of an intervention in public space as live lab workshop with young architects, citizens, NGOs demonstrated how to fill the gap of joint social and culture initiative. Architecture students engaged as volunteers used practically their skills for the first time, confronting innovative ideas with their diverse social background to create people-friendly public space. Meeting with other students presented an interesting opportunity in extended networking and building new partnerships between young architects & cultural institutions of MENA.
Project ongoing since 2017 thanks to the grant awarded under the SouthMed CV – Communities of Practice for the Public Value of Culture in the Southern Mediterranean programme implemented by the Kairouan Community in cooperation with Development Policy Foundation.
