On a typical day, the spaces between the Aristotle University campus and the nearby Iraklis sports grounds feel like fragments: large, open, yet somehow disconnected. Spaces people pass through, but rarely claim. The question that guided the process in Thessaloniki was simple: what would it take for young people to not just use these spaces, but to shape them?

This question unfolded through a series of actions united by a shared message: “Παίρνουμε Χώρο” — “We Take Space.” Not as a one-off event, but as a continuous campaign that gradually built a community, tested ideas, and led to real spatial interventions. As Vivian (STIPO Greece project team) explains, “Public space is not neutral. It is where relationships, identities, and conditions of participation are shaped. Young people live in the city every day, but rarely participate in how it is formed.”

Starting with Listening

The process began in autumn 2024 with focus groups, working separately with university students and young people from the Iraklis sports association. At that stage, participation could not be assumed. “At the beginning of the project, youth participation was not a given… Through these activities, we found young people who genuinely wanted to engage,” recalls Dimitra (project team). Slowly, a group started to form—not as passive participants, but as people willing to explore how public space could work differently.

Bringing Communities Together

A key step was bringing these two communities together. This happened through a collective exploration of the area, using a treasure hunt format that encouraged participants to observe, discuss, and reinterpret both the campus and the sports facilities. For many, this was a first encounter with this kind of process. “It was a really great opportunity to see how this actually happens in practice… and to take action with other people who share the same interest,” says Melina (young participant). What began as exploration gradually became a shared way of seeing space.

This shift was also visible to the local partners. “Through this process, young people can gain the right tools: to collaborate, to coexist, to understand one another, and to solve problems together,” says Dionysis (CoSpace Lab, Aristotle University). From the side of the sports association, Giorgos (G.S. Iraklis) observed how, through participation, people began to feel that the space could belong to them—that they could shape it and take care of it. This emerging sense of ownership became a key driver for what followed.

From Ideas to Action

In spring 2025, the process moved into participatory workshops, where ideas started to take form. The focus was not only on what could be built, but on how space is experienced—through movement, presence, and interaction. For Dimitris (young participant, Antithrust Collective), this phase was important precisely because it moved beyond discussion: the value was in testing ideas in reality. Similarly, Iasonas (young participant, Antithrust Collective) reflects on how working together in space created a different kind of understanding—less abstract, more collective and grounded.

These ideas were tested in practice during the public event “AUTh on Sunday” in May 2025. Temporary installations, parkour activities, and open interactions allowed participants and visitors to experience new uses of space. It was also at this moment that the collaboration with the parkour collective Antithrust emerged—an encounter that would directly influence one of the final interventions. The event functioned as a real-life feedback loop, where ideas were not only presented but challenged, adapted, and enriched.

Negotiating Reality

From there, the process became more concrete. Based on the testing, the team and participants co-developed action plans and entered a consultation phase with the municipality, the university, and the sports association. This stage revealed both opportunities and constraints.

“Many times we run into procedural issues… bureaucracy… which make things particularly difficult and discouraging,” notes Dionysis (Aristotle University), adding that this also became a learning point for the team—highlighting the need for more flexible participatory processes.

At the same time, continued collaboration with partners like Iraklis enabled progress, even when initial plans had to change.

Two Ways of Taking Space

In the end, two interventions were implemented, each reflecting a different way of engaging with public space.

The first was a jogging route at the heart of the university campus, which remains particularly empty outside of teaching hours. Co-designed and installed with youth participation, the route introduced a new layer of meaning into everyday movement: each point along the route was named after a female Olympic athlete, bringing visibility to women in a public space typically dominated by male representation. This choice was not incidental, but part of a continuous effort to keep a gender lens active throughout the process.

The second intervention was the creation of a parkour park, developed in collaboration with the Antithrust Collective within the Iraklis S.A. premises (also known as the “Chortatzides Cultural and Sports Center”).

“We managed to transform an underused football field into a parkour park… open to the community,” says Dimitra.

 “The people who participated in this process—especially the young people who now use the space—feel that it is theirs. That they have created it themselves, that they can take care of it and continue to evolve it,” adds Giorgos (G.S. Iraklis).

While the jogging route focuses on movement through space, the parkour park creates a place to stay—to gather, train, and build community.

Rethinking Space Through Experience

The importance of how space is experienced from a femininity’s perspective—especially in terms of safety and comfort—remained central.

“If I’m alone in a more static space, I feel more exposed. Spaces are not really designed to make you feel comfortable or safe,” reflects Valentini (young participant), pointing to the uneven ways in which public space is lived.

Such insights directly informed the interventions, particularly the emphasis on visibility and openness in the jogging route.

What Remains

What remains today is visible in the city: a route, a park, two new spatial realities. But the deeper impact lies in the process that led to them. A group of young people who moved from participation to co-creation. New relationships between institutions and communities. And a set of ideas that continue beyond what was physically implemented.

“It’s a great success… it was far from something that could be taken for granted,” reflects Dimitra.

And as Vivian reminds us, “We cannot take youth participation for granted… There needs to be a framework that enables them to participate.”

Balancing Hardware, Software, and Orgware

Looking back, the process reflects a balanced placemaking approach across hardware, software, and orgware.

At the software level, the project reshaped how these spaces are experienced—introducing new ways of moving through them and new narratives, such as the visibility of female athletes in public space.

At the level of hardware, tangible, lighter, quicker, cheaper interventions were implemented through both the jogging route and the parkour park, making change visible and usable.

Most importantly, at the orgware level, a small but committed community of young people was formed, while local partners have already taken ownership of maintaining and collectively managing the interventions moving forward.

Together, this balance ensures that the impact is not only physical, but also social and long-lasting.

Taking Space, Over Time

“Παίρνουμε Χώρο — We Take Space” was not a single moment. It unfolded step by step—through listening, testing, negotiating, and building.

What matters now is that the process does not stop here. The collaboration among the university, the sports association, and local actors has already taken a next step, with new resources secured to continue working together. The ideas, relationships, and trust built throughout the project are now carried forward by those involved.

In that sense, taking space is not only about what has been created, but also about what can continue to grow from it.

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the commitment, creativity, and persistence of all the young people who took part in the process—bringing their ideas, time, and energy into shaping these spaces.

We would also like to warmly thank our local partners for their trust and collaboration. In particular, Giorgos Chatzinakos and Giorgos Serefas from G.S. Iraklis, as well as Prof. Dionysis Latinopoulos from the CoSpace Lab, School of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, for their essential role in supporting and advancing this process.

We also acknowledge the support of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, including the General Directorate of Technical Services and Informatics (Γενική Διεύθυνση Τεχνικών Υπηρεσιών & Μηχανοργάνωσης) and Iakovos D. Michailidis, Vice Rector of International Relations and Outreach, Lifelong Learning and Student Care, for their contribution to the implementation of the interventions.

Special thanks go to the people and teams who made the interventions possible on the ground: SDR Lab for facilitating the co-creation workshop and supporting the implementation of the jogging route, Antithrust Collective for designing the parkour park, and Damon Sidiropoulos for its construction.

We also extend our gratitude to our interns, Anna Sorgente, Valerie Vlasblo, Ivanka de Blok, and Amber Beerens (University of Breda), for their continuous support throughout the implementation phase, as well as to all the volunteers who contributed their time and energy along the way.