After having visited Amsterdam, Budapest, Hamburg, Trikala and Oxford it was finally the time for our consortium to meet in Istanbul for the 6th Cities-4-People’s project meeting. On the 11 November, we were welcomed by our partners in charming Üsküdar, on the Asian shores of the Bosphorus.
On the first day, our pilot partners presented the results of the co-creative activities carried out to select an intervention to be scaled up. Each pilot area has identified the mobility solution that is best suited for improvement and replication. The selected scale up action has been prototyped and will now be piloted at the beginning of 2020. This was also the occasion for the project partners to exchange experiences and opinions on the best practices in co-creation.
In the afternoon, we walked along the steep roads of Üsküdar that have been targeted by one of the pilot interventions in this area and now host brand new and comfortable benches to offer some rest to the citizens along the way. Afterwards, we moved to the Solimahn Park, where the intervention “I own my garden” has contributed to the creation of new paved ways connecting bus stops located at both ends of the park. This intervention has been extended to another park, the Nakkaştepe Millet Bahçesi Park, where improved paving goes along with support for vulnerable groups. The municipality has offered electric cars for the transport of people with disability. It was great to see the concrete impact of the project on the territory and to witness the enthusiasm of the people involved.
In the evening, we celebrated the end of a very fruitful day with a delicious dinner at the restaurant of the municipality. The beautiful shoreline of Üsküdar and the sunset over the Maiden’s Tower offered the perfect scenario for an evening stroll.
On the next day, 12 November, Waag coordinated a group discussion on the Citizen Mobility Kit and the tools and methodology that have characterised the co-creation journey of each pilot area. Afterwards, a World Café took place and partners had the chance to discuss various aspects related to the scale up at 5 different tables:
- The Citizen Mobility Kit
- Scale-up data collection and monitoring
- Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation and Sustainability
- Policy Recommendations and considerations on neighbourhood approach and co-creation
- Core Outcome Set Methodology
We concluded our days in Istanbul with a meeting with the major of the municipality of Üsküdar and a tour of the Bosphorus on the municipality boat, enjoying a breath-taking sunset over the Istanbul skyline.
Thankful for the great hospitality, we left Istanbul with a clear understanding of the steps we need to take during the last semester of our project and the motivation to improve and showcase the potential of Cities-4-People. Looking forward to the coming new piloting phase!
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