From 2020 to 2024, Cité du design - Saint-Étienne Higher School of Art and Design was a partner in the European project ‘Human Cities/SMOTIES’, in which universities, centres, agencies and associations from ten countries have been developing spatial solutions by designing creative innovations. The ‘Design Empowering Places’ forum, organised in Tallinn (Estonia) in september 2024, brought together all the project partners and provided an opportunity to present the results of the experiments carried out by each of them.
Led by the Politecnico di Milano, the project Human Cities/SMOTIES -Creative works with small and remote places has brought together 10 European countries (Austria, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK) to work out a common methodology for developing creativity in remote areas by adapting to the context, and working with local people to bring innovation to public spaces and generate a sustainable impact.
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The forum was organised as part of the Disainiöö festival.
Cité du design and designers Monika Olszak and Costanza Matteucci from Saint-Etienne presented the soft mobility project carried out in the Dorlay valley, as well as the ESADSE students' residence, part of the SMOTIES project.
See all Cité du design experiments (in French)
The Forum was accompanied by an exhibition highlighting interesting examples of the project, carried out in recent yearsin different regions of Europe: from the Viking heritage in the Icelandic village of Borgarnes to the Natura 2000 area of Apano Meria on the Greek island of Syros; from the intergenerational card game in Sainte-Croix en Jarez to the former industrial village of Joaveski in Estonia...
France / Dorlay valley & Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez
Since the 18th century, the Dorlay Valley has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in the textile industry, combining traditional skills with a rich heritage of industrial buildings and infrastructure. In several villages in the valley, efforts are being made to valorise the remnants of the craft traditions. Sainte-Croix- en-Jarez, on the other hand, is known for its Carthusian monastery. This is protected and promoted by the inhabitants for its tangible and intangible heritage, especially for future generations, but also for tourism in the region. Since 2022, the Cité du Design has organised several workshops based on the SMOTIES toolbox guidelines to stimulate social exchange among residents and provide space for future projects.Intergenerational measures, such as the creation of a community card game in Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez and the promotion of environmentally friendly mobility are at the centre of the initiatives in the Dorlay Valley.
Estonia / Joaveski
Joaveski is located in the heart of the Lahemaa National Park and became best known as an industrial village with a hydroelectric power station and a cardboard factory at the very end of the 19th century. The numerous factory buildings in particular reflect the last few centuries of cultural history. Team EAD landed in Joaveski in 2021. After making contact with the local people, the collaboration between Team EAD and the village residents resulted in the artistic and historical processing, improvement, and development of local hiking trails, a mini-podcast called “Sauna FM” and quite a number of events dedicated to art exhibitions, summer camps and exclusive Future Food cuisine. Through working with locals, valuable stories and data have been studied and preserved. The work on the proposed Studio Joaveski has allowed two outbuildings of the former factory to be upgraded and used for various purposes (exhibitions, get-togethers, working stations, etc). Together with SMOTIES, the town would also like to implement an international exchange programme in the future.
Wales / Penmachno
The small village of Penmachno, located within Eryri National Park in Wales, has undergone major changes over the past century. Once a vibrant community centred around slate quarrying, wool production, and agriculture, it has experienced the decline of its slate quarries and woollen mill, resulting in a loss of cultural and commercial heritage. Today, tourism is the primary industry, although agriculture remains an important part of the local economy. Over the past four years, Clear Village has collaborated with the Penmachno community and the owners of Manchester House, which was once one of 30 shops in the village during the era of slate quarrying, to transform a derelict site in the village centre into a vibrant community space. Oriel Machno (Welsh for Machno Gallery) celebrates local craft talent, international art and design, and local knowledge exchange, honouring the heritage of the past while looking towards the future.
Greece / Apano Meria
Located in the northern side of the island of Syros, Apano Meria has a vast cultural heritage and an amazing landscape that is being protected and developed with the help of the SMOTIES team. Working together with residents promotes a collective awareness to identify and co-create sustainable practices and solutions. Social and ecological measures are intended to strengthen the community on the one hand and conserve and protect limited natural resources on the other.
A workshop has already been held in Ermoupolis at the University of the Aegean, which focused on the special features and cultural heritage of Apano Meria. Fundamental to this are social cohesion and justice, which form the basis for the preservation of culture and environmental protection.
Portugal / Estreito da Calheta
On the Portuguese island of Madeira, the SMOTIES team and the residents of Estreito da Calheta worked hand in hand. Through active listening, a good framework for communication was created and the desire to create a stronger sense of community and a local cultural programme was expressed in discussions. The aim is to create a physical space that brings people together and breathes new life into the village through cultural and artistic initiatives. At a village meeting organised by the SMOTIES team, the community itself became active and visualised its ideas and wishes on paper. Inspired by this meeting, a documentary was produced about the residents of Estreito da Calheta with a look into the past and future and shown to them on 1 July 2023 together with the SMOTIES exhibition.
Iceland / Borgarnes
The small town of Borgarnes is located on the Borgarfjörður fjord and is home to 2,108 inhabitants. The first settlement was established as early as the 9th century and Borgarnes later evolved into a trading centre in the 19th century. The harbour as the hub of the town had a major influence on its architectural development. The SMOTIES team has been working on site since 2021. In 2022, they conducted an interdisciplinary study to identify potential public spaces. This included humanities, planning, and architecture, as well as discussions with community members. The project aims to redesign the streetscape of selected public spaces together with the residents in citizen-centred and participatory design. In the summer of 2023, the focus was on the implementation of a co-designed prototype using extended reality for citizen-friendly public spaces.
Slovenia / Topol Pri Medvodah, Zlebe & Belo
In Polhograjski dolomiti Landscape Park, public places and cultural facilities are being remodelled as part of the SMOTIES project, which combines tradition and modernity. The residents of the area are actively involved in this process, which strengthens the community identity of the area. Although it is a popular one-day recreational destination for residents of nearby settlements and the capital city of Ljubljana, this area lacks a public transport network and has few public facilities.Together with the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (UIRS), projects were implemented to strengthen the local community, such as the reuse of meadows and forests as public spaces, combining contemporary artistic and traditional rural life activities.The SMOTIES approaches have also enabled new guidelines for a participatory transformation of public spaces in other small places of Slovenia as part of the National Spatial Order policy.
Austria / Oberzeiring
Oberzeiring, a town in Upper Styria with around 830 inhabitants, has a rich history of silver mining. Today it is known for its show mine and healing gallery. Oberzeiring also lives from tourism. However, the local community suffers from a lack of quality of life due to poor public transport connections, high traffic volumes, vacancies and a lack of places to meet. Regular discussions on improving communication in public spaces are held in collaboration with FH JOANNEUM Graz. The most important square in the town, the market square, is currently used as a parking and bus turning area. Hence, in addition to projects such as a ride-sharing bench and vacant spaces, temporary furniture was developed for the square. This responded to the wishes and needs of the population for seating and play areas as well as greenery. The furniture also features specially designed flags and information cubes to improve the presence of the Oberzeiring clubs, so strengthening communication between them. These were used for the first time during the “Frischer Wind” summer festival in spring 2023.
Poland / Bobrek
Cieszyn is a small town in Poland with around 32,000 inhabitants, located on the border with the Czech Republic. Bobrek is now part of the town, but used to be an independent neighbouring village. Bobrek was intended to house 18,000 people, for which a large building complex was designed. This idea of new housing options was ultimately implemented in the form of two small settlements. These settlements are not linked to any social infrastructure and are therefore not connected to any cultural centres, schools, or public transport. Living in Bobrek therefore offers few prospects for people who want to lead a communal and networked life. The aim of the activities with the residents was to design and programme areas between the two settlements for joint activities.
Italy / Basso Monferrato
Through a participatory process developed with the citizens, a network of significant places in the town have been identified: those rooted in the past – associated with personal memories and including symbolic and functional meanings – and those focused on the present, aiming towards a shared and renewed desire for project development, seeking to recover what has been lost due to reasons such as space closures or changes in land use resulting from socio-economic transformations in recent decades.The final strategy brings together eight places that enable their use by citizens and tell visitors the stories, rituals, and practices incorporated therein. All have been equipped with ‚Totems: narrative elements of the history and stories of the village and its inhabitants that create a path through the historic centre, together with historical pictures and accessibility information. Moreover, thanks to a tactical urban design intervention, a part of the square has been pedestrianised, returning this space to everyday gatherings between citizens.
The results of the experiments carried out in each country have been published in a book, Remote places, Public Spaces, co-edited by the Cité du design and Birkhäuser. In addition to the results of the projects, the book contains feedback from the designers, as well as articles written by internationally renowned experts. The book is avalaible at the Cité du design shop.
Info about the Cité du design shopBuy the book onlineeBook
