Urban Planning for Social Resilience –
Learn to Build Impact from the Ground Up

Urban Planning for Social Resilience – Learn to Build Impact from the Ground Up

Dourgouti Island Hotel Project

The Dourgouti Island Hotel Project (2015-2016), a showcase of Ohi Pezoume’s Urban Dig Project platform, mobilized a cross-field network of residents, scientists, artists, and students to research and map the Dourgouti neighborhood of Athens through community events, participatory mapping, and storytelling. It modeled bottom-up urban regeneration—reclaiming public space, building local networks, and producing lasting outcomes like an Oral History Group and a music performance celebrating the area.

About The Case Study

Dourgouti Island Hotel Project (2015-2016) at Dourgouti neighborhood of Athens is a showcase for the collective cross-field research1 and management of local cultural capital and for activating a local community network with sustainable features. It is a showcase of the Urban Dig Project, a platform created by awarded Ohi Pezoume Performing Arts Company (TEDxAthens 1st prize, 2011). The group inspires a cross-field horizontal network of scientists, artists, researchers, students, residents of all ages to research and map a neighborhood. The backbone of the research method is the voluntary formation of:(a) a series of community events with the double role of collecting and sharing interesting material about the neighborhood (b) several cross-field research groups created by residents, scientists, artists, University students. The Dourgouti Island Hotel Project effectively demonstrated how civic engagement can influence urban planning and resilience by fostering community participation, reclaiming public space, and strengthening local networks. Through artistic interventions, participatory mapping, and storytelling, the project offered a model for bottom-up urban regeneration, ultimately enhancing both the spatial and social resilience of the neighborhood. Some of the results are:

  • Supporting the creation and the operation of a local Oral History Group that still exists.
  • Contributing to local capacity development through workshops and meetings for knowledge sharing. Based on statistics, most participants chose to offer a much wider variety of skills in the project than what they introduced themselves with
  • Supporting local participants of the program to curate their findings about the area into libretti for a music performance celebrating Dourgouti produced by the Onassis Foundation Cultural Center that is based nearby

Topics:

Community Hubs & Cultural Activities

Resilience Challenges:

Social and cultural resilience

Type of Civic Engagement Supporting Neighborhood Resilience:

Art- and culture-based civic engagement
Short-term, more flexible project-based engagement
Volunteer and community service projects

Level of Civic Participation:

Collaboration or co-operation
Empowerment or co-production
Information
Involvement or participation

Stakeholders Involved:

Academic and research institutions
Community members
Local Government
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Private Sector