February 6, 2019 - NGO Expeditio - Center for Sustainable Spatial Development within the project "Activating the Potential of Open Public Space for Improving the Quality of Life in Kotor" is implementing an informative and educational campaign on social networks aiming to raise the awareness of citizens and institutions about the values and potentials of public spaces in Kotor.
The project is supported through the ReLOaD program funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In Montenegro, the ReLoD program partners are the municipalities of Kotor, Tivat, Niksic, Pljevlja, and Podgorica.
The development and functioning of the city are the victims of the process that neglects the potentials of the so-called "urban pockets," which are often entirely unused and ignored instead of being places that raise the quality of space and offer additional contents to people who gravitate to it. It is what motivated the new project by the architects from NVO Expeditio Kotor, dealing with issues of sustainable spatial development for over 20 years with an emphasis on public spaces.
"Failure to recognize the potential of these spaces for the quality of everyday life of citizens is something we want to change with this project. Also, public areas are not treated through an integral approach, viewing them as a whole that offers many available opportunities to enrich the facilities in the city. We also emphasize the problem of not knowing the real value of public space both by decision-makers and the general public, as we often testify that ignorance leads to permanent disappearance of space. Such a kind of ignorance often leads to situations when the consequences of specific activity in the area are noticed when it is too late to prevent devastation, and Kotor has also led to the danger of being removed from the UNESCO list. All this motivated a project for which the implementation began in September 2018."
Expeditio launched information and educational campaign on social networks about the value of space in Kotor. Namely, social network attendants can see three to five posts per week, with the aim of giving citizens a sense of the value of the public space in the area of Kotor, their potential and ways to improve them.
As the Architect from NVO Expeditio Aleksandra Kapetanović said to Radio Kotor, apart from the Old Town, there are not enough functional and well-designed public spaces in the Kotor area.
"Many of them are not adequately equipped or fully depleted, and those who have the potentials are not being used. Throughout the project, we are planning a detailed mapping and analysis of these areas, including guidelines for their upgrading. We will make concrete proposals," said Kapetanović, adding that one location would be "elaborated" in detail and based on the project and adequately renovated and decorated.
The project is significant because it represents the beginning of looking at the potential of public space not from the aspect of opportunities for sale or construction, but from the perspective of expanding the quality of life of citizens in Kotor through the arrangement of the surrounding space. The target group is, alongside citizens, representatives of local institutions, and in the end, tourists visiting the city.
Source: www.expeditio.org
