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The transition to a sustainable, inclusive, and vibrant Europe hinges on one core principle: citizen involvement. This has been an anchor for the work at the eight Desire demonstration sites. Throughout the project, partners across borders have worked closely together, inspiring each other to test new ways of doing things. 

In the boxes below, we provide detailed descriptions of the work carried out at each of the eight demonstration sites; three sites in Denmark, two in Italy and one in The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Latvia. Here is a brief overview.

The Kalundborg (Denmark) and Amsterdam have gained completely new and self-aware groups of citizens who have learned that they too can have a voice in the green transformation. Activities in Riga have taught the municipality how to build trust between authorities and citizens, which is a prerequisite for renovating the many Soviet housing blocks in a sustainable, inclusive and qualitative way.

In Kalundborg, the first initiative focused on listening to the place and learning from its history. This approach created trust and ownerships and sparked ideas for essential place-based changes. Similarly, BTC City Ljubljana, a business and shopping area, has recognized the value of collaborating across companies, authorities, educational institutions, and local residents to develop a strategy for making the city greener. This approach not only supported a connection with the sites but also built a long-term strategy of becoming the ‘green norm’ of the region through designing green spaces, buildings and identity, also enhancing the city's appeal for future generations.

Artistic and design practices are key to engaging communities and transforming places. An example is the Garden Caretaker in Herlev, Denmark, where artists used various methods like fictional writing, sculpting, performance, and audio walks to deepen connections between stakeholders and non-human beings. The urban farming site Cascina Falchera near Torino also lets an artist speak to new audiences with the desire to connect people with nature. In the MIND Milano Innovation District, prominent yellow “Desire benches” follow the thoughts in a ‘Beauty for All’ framework to help decision-makers incorporate beauty and inclusiveness when expanding the area’s enormous main street Decumano.

Learnings from the social housing area, Gadehavegaard in Høje-Taastrup (Denmark) show that if you customize co-creation processes to involve young people you may end up with completely new and wild ideas. This has inspired GXN, an architectural firm, to formalize the working method into a free design toolkit.

Join us when we visit our eight demonstration sites and get an introduction to the work there; BTC City in Slovenia, Riga, The Garden Caretaker in Herlev (Denmark), MIND Milano Innovation District, Wildemanbuurt in Amsterdam, Cascina Falchera in Torino, Gadehavegaard in Denmark, and Kalundborg in Denmark. 

The Desire Transformation guide includes 6 transformation themes providing concrete advice, considerations, and applicable tools for a participatory, multi-level, and multi-disciplinary transformation process.

The collection of tools used in the Desire project, some of them even developed in Desire.

The activities in Desire have been guided by five principles, which have been developed by the partners together based on the values of the New European Bauhaus; beautiful, sustainable, together