Civic Stages – partners for NEB neighbourhood public space pilots

Civic Stages is a project idea for the Horizon Europe New European Bauhaus Facility call NEB-2026-01-PARTICIPATION-02: Innovative approaches for the spatial design of neighbourhoods.

Across Europe, many neighbourhoods have public spaces that are physically present but socially silent. They are passed through rather than used, avoided rather than shared, or designed without the voices of the people who could bring them to life.

The project aims to transform underused neighbourhood public spaces into places for learning, voice and belonging. We want to develop and test a practical methodology for co-creating inclusive, climate-sensitive and beautiful public spaces together with their users.

Our starting point is a concrete pilot site in Vilnius, Lithuania: an outdoor amphitheatre and surrounding public space next to HOBIVERSE / Sostinės vaikų ir jaunimo centras. The space has the potential to become a more inclusive outdoor learning, community and cultural place for children, young people, families, local residents and visitors.

We are looking for partners to build a strong consortium and demonstrate the approach in at least three neighbourhoods in three different European countries.

We are especially interested in:

• cities, municipalities or municipal agencies with concrete pilot sites;

• universities and research organisations with expertise in social sciences, participatory methods, well-being, accessibility and impact assessment;

• urban design, architecture, landscape and placemaking organisations;

• NGOs and community-based organisations experienced in inclusive participation;

• SMEs or technical/design partners able to support prototyping, modular solutions and practical implementation.

The pilots do not need to be identical. Each site may respond to its own local context, but all pilots would follow a shared methodology: place analysis, community engagement, co-design, temporary testing, small-scale implementation, monitoring and replication.

HOBIVERSE can contribute a concrete pilot site in Vilnius, strong experience in non-formal education, youth and community engagement, access to children, young people and families, and motivation to coordinate the development of a meaningful European partnership.

We are looking for motivated partners willing to shape the concept together at an early stage.