Inclusive and Climate-Resilient Neighbourhoods – Muğla as a Living Lab for Accessible Public Spaces

Muğla Metropolitan Municipality (Türkiye) is interested in joining relevant DUT Call 2026 consortia exploring inclusive, accessible and climate-resilient neighbourhoods and public spaces.

The Municipality has developed a local concept entitled “Accessible Disaster-Resilient Neighbourhood Model – Quiet Safe Assembly Areas”, responding to the need to better integrate persons with disabilities and other people with specific support needs into neighbourhood-level resilience planning.

The existing concept includes neighbourhood-level needs and risk assessment, accessible evacuation planning, inclusive and low-stimulation safe assembly areas, accessible communication systems, community volunteer networks, digital information tools and post-event social and psychosocial support mechanisms.

Muğla is interested in exploring how elements of this concept could be integrated into broader DUT research and innovation projects dealing with inclusive public-space transformation, adaptive reuse of urban spaces, climate resilience, accessibility, neighbourhood-level co-creation and the needs of underrepresented or vulnerable groups.

The Municipality can provide real neighbourhood environments for co-design and testing, municipal expertise in disaster risk management and social services, access to relevant municipal departments and local stakeholders, and opportunities to engage residents, civil society organisations, universities and local authorities in an Urban Living Lab approach.

We are particularly interested in collaborating with municipalities, universities, research organisations and innovation partners working on inclusive urban design, accessibility, climate adaptation, neighbourhood resilience, public-space transformation, participatory planning and Urban Living Labs.

Muğla is open to adapting and co-developing its existing concept within a relevant DUT consortium rather than limiting cooperation to a predetermined project model.