About us

The Syncity project, which ran from 2019 to 2021, focused on the Cureghem neighbourhood in Brussels, Belgium.

It was about people exchanging ideas on the present and the future of a neighbourhood that is undergoing major urban transformation pressures. It was about starting new conversations and making connections, between academics, local associations, public authorities, retailers, business people, workers, students and residents. It was about understanding a neighbourhood as a truly social place. Then came Covid-19 and not surprisingly, the onset of the pandemic also affected the Syncity project.

The backbone of communication between the project partners and the residents and users of the neighbourhood was a series of Urban Living Labs: spaces of lively exchange and discussion that were meant to run over a period of two years and address the very tangible challenges faced by the people of Cureghem. This exchange became very difficult from spring 2020 onwards. Many planned events were banned as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19, others could only be organised in a much-reduced form and still involving risks. Syncity, as a transnational, applied, participatory and social science-oriented project, thrived on a diverse source base, including contributions from participating residents and users of Cureghem in the context of these Urban Living Labs. Cutting back on these labs obviously had an impact on the course of the project.

How to make urban transformation truly engaging, just and sustainability-oriented? The Syncity toolbox offers innovative concepts and practical ideas, based on lessons learnt from the city quarter of Cureghem in Brussels. It is especially valuable for disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The vision: cities in balance with natural resources, where residents, no matter their socio-economic or cultural background, can live, work and learn in synergy with the place, growing and renewing it together.

Download Toolbox

This project has received funding in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe.

Handbook

When a pandemic hits a participatory project

The Syncity consortium has endeavoured to make the best of the exceptional situation in 2020 and 2021, to continue the project within its means and to produce useful tools for urban transformation processes.

Over the year, Syncity became more theory-focused than originally intended. In response to this, the team decided to include insights from the whole project process into this handbook, and to broaden its scope with conceptual input, moving back and forth between theory and practice, as the Syncity project did.

From a project to an approach

This handbook presents the Syncity approach: an innovative way to make urban planning sustainability-driven and stakeholder-inclusive – in particular for arrival areas in European cities. It is based on the experiences and results derived from the Syncity project, combined with the expertise of the team in the fields of architecture, social geography, urban planning, social work, ecological process evaluation, participation, sociology, and transdisciplinary communication.

Syncity — Synergetic Cities for Europe, funded by JPI Urban Europe, was a research and innovation project between Austrian and Belgian partners, carried out from 2019 – 2021. How to make urban trans¬formation processes more just and green? In exchange with experiences, learnings and good practice from Vienna, the Syncity project explored this question in the reallife context of Cureghem, a city quarter within the municipality of Anderlecht in the Brussels Region. Cureghem has historically been an »arrival area« for immigrants in Brussels, and still is. The local population faces various challenges, such as high unemployment, a precarious housing situation, a lack of public spaces and ecological hotspots. The Syncity toolbox and this book present a hands-on approach to lay a basis for improvement.

This handbook is composed of five parts.

Part I

outlines the framework for urban sustainability and citizen participation. How can both paradigms be knitted together in an enriching way? This part lays out the main concepts behind the approach, presents eight Sustainability Criteria developed by the project, and discusses ideas about creating urban commons and emotional co-ownership by stakeholders, especially of vulnerable groups. How can they attain a better position for change making within urban transformation?

Part II

offers a step-by-step guide for setting up a stakeholder-inclusive process within a framework of urban sustainability. It is based to a considerable extent on experiences in Cureghem and is aimed at neighbourhoods facing strong transformation pressure.

Part III

I describes innovative approaches to research in an urban transformation context, based on the combination of participatory action research and Life Cycle Assessment, and presents »Syntopia« — a future vision for a building which in itself enhances social, ecological and economic sustainability in a neighbourhood.

Part IV

explores the concept of Urban Living Labs and their next generation — Transformative Labs. It deals with the benefits of co-creation, co-design and coconstruction processes, following the idea to include residents and users of a site as active partners into urban transformation.

Part V

offers two new stakeholder tools developed by Syncity to better understand a stakeholder landscape, and presents innovative practical ways of engagement in the analogue and the digital world: a laboratory on wheels, the app Kju:ti and the map-based blog Cureghem tales.

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partners and mind map

This project has received funding in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe.

Methods

11 methods to engage: hands-on, public-space oriented, with short instruction manuals. How does each method work, what is the result, what budget, competences and material do you need?

01 Choose your urban furniture

An interactive method to imagine possible ways of transforming a public space with urban furniture.

02 The Urbodrom game

A moderated board game in which the players take on different roles related to a certain setting (a house, a neighbourhood, an urban planning process, etc). They negotiate to create community-driven sustainable spaces.

03 The walkshop

A method for urban areas with a high density of development plans where gentrification is likely to happen. It lets stakeholders with different types of knowledge (e. g. city planners, local residents, users) meet as equal partners and learn from each other.

04 Porte parole

A visually attractive way to make people reflect and discuss about topics and conditions related to urban transformation.

05 Participatory photo interview

The photo interview opens a dialogue with “formal experts”, as opposed to other methods where researchers decide about the relevant topics. It allows local residents and users to contribute their ideas and local knowledge to a planning process. They become active research partners.

06 Seeding the city

While most people do not own land in the city, seed balls are are a symbol for the battle for collective ressources and against scarcity of land, environmental abuse and wasted opportunities.

07 Collaborative mapping

A popular method to engage stakeholders in urban planning and design and to develop a better understanding of the different types of activities encountered in the public space. The aim is to facilitate the spatialisation of users’ mobility flows and set the conditions for identifying possible conflicts in the public space.

08 The walking interview

The “walking and talking” method is used for revealing the relationship between people and places, including perceptions, emotions, identification with space, performativity, usage and ways to appropriate the space.

09 Atelier scenario

A workshop involving end users of a service, product or urban planning project, to share opinions and collaborate on solving problems with the help of a facilitator. It is an effective tool for co-creating solutions with the people who are the most affected by an issue, regardless of their education and communication skills.

10 Plexhibition

Plexhibition invites people to study their surroundings and to propose changes for chosen aspects of the environment. Instead of verbal articulation, ideas are drawn on the plexiglass. The temporary exhibition of images created stimulates conversation and debate on space.

11 Architectural model

Architectural models are artefacts that represent public space as close to reality as possible. They are ideally built together with the local community. Compared to maps, drawings or images, architectural models are time-consuming to build, but they are the most effective way to communicate.

This project has received funding in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe.

Tools

10 tools to apply: do the sustainability self-check, build and further develop the Kju:Ti source code to facilitate easy going participation, use the communing matrix to find out who can develop commons in a neighbourhood, and much more.

Your project at a glance

Communicate your ideas easily to convince partners to join or governmental bodies to fund.

Neighbourhood tales

A guide to create your own tales — bring a place or a city quarter alive with storytelling and maps

Sustainability self-check

Is your urban project sustainability-oriented? Use our tool for self-reflection and improvement.

Kju:Ti code

Try the Kju:Ti code as a basis for an ICT tool that encourages participation through direct communication.

Stakeholder template

Collect information on stakeholders involved with your site as a solid basis for further work.

The stakeholder balance tool

Cluster your stakeholders to prepare for upcoming project activities and to ensure you don’t forget anyone.

The stakeholder commoning matrix

Which stakeholders are most likely to create the urban commons? This tool helps you to find out.

The Urbodrom game

Use a playful method to engage citizens in sustainability-oriented urban planning.

The ELAS calculator

Assess energy demand, ecological footprint or CO2 life cycle emissions and estimate future developments.

Handbook and 11 method cards

Find the complete version of the handbook and the Syncity method cards as PDF files.

Download Toolbox

This project has received funding in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe.

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This project has received funding in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe.

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This project has received funding in the framework of the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe.