PLAofTOGETHER · Places of Togetherness: Investigating the relationship between urban space and social cohesion through the Asia Minor refugee’s courtyards in Nikea

Places of Togetherness: Investigating the relationship between urban space and social cohesion through the Asia Minor refugee’s courtyards in Nikea

Europe is increasingly becoming more culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse. The diversification of European cities can be an opportunity for increased tolerance and exchange or might lead to conflict and fear. Understanding how urban neighborhoods and public spaces facilitate tolerance should be a critical research field within the built environment disciplines. PLAofTOGETHER investigated the relationship between public space and social cohesion, through the case of Nikea’s shared courtyards. Nikea, an Asia Minor refugee settlement established in 1923 in Greece, has diversified socio-economically, culturally, and spatially over the last century. Its masterplan consists of minimal dwellings organized in building blocks with shared courtyards. Today, 134 shared spaces remain, but their former active social life is disintegrating. Ethnographic and participatory research methods were used to address 2 key lines of inquiry: a. how do threshold spaces (between public & private) influence everyday life? what kind of social relationships do they afford? b. how can embodied experiences of social interaction and commoning reactivate a network of shared spaces and their residents’ urban imaginary? For the first line of inquiry, the project showed how small public spaces can afford greater levels of intimacy, appropriation, and care by residents. If designed adjacent to housing, they allow the households’ extension to the public sphere, becoming places of everyday interactions and loose social ties. Their small size and amphitheatric layout give them a semi-private character that although does not necessarily lead to direct contact, it creates a thin sociality. PLAofTOGETHER also showed that while public space is necessary for social interactions to flourish, it is not sufficient. The social life of public spaces is influenced by greater complex socioeconomic factors, such as the rise of living standards, privatization of everyday life, demographic changes, transformation of the place’s identity, etc. Also, culture and gender play a significant role on how space is used and how people interact in it. While identifying the complex factors affecting the social life of public spaces, for the second line of inquiry, the project examined if embodied experiences of commoning can overturn established social structures. A series of small participatory events, co-designed by residents allowed for significant contributions to the state of the art by temporarily reactivating public spaces and residents’ urban imaginary, while creating new collective experiences. Compared to more institutional formats of participation, it was revealed that everyday participatory practices with human interactions on an equal footing have more potential to facilitate residents’ agency and connection. Hence, the research posits that the methods used to transition urban spaces into places of togetherness relate to local communities themselves, and authorities need to provide them with agency, infrastructure, and tools to do so.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union