Reclaim the NEBourhoods
As part of the Future DiverCities Twinning Programme, the Ankara-based creative hub Aks visited La Friche la belle de Mai & CHRONIQUES in Marseille to exchange practices and explore new ways of reclaiming urban spaces through creativity.
Bringing placemaking into a new context: Motivated by their vision to connect cultural innovation with urban transformation, Aks travelled to Marseille to test and adapt their methodology Dream-It, Order-It, Walk-It within the layered social and spatial fabric of La Friche. The encounter offered fertile ground to rethink how forgotten public spaces can be reactivated through collaborative and citizen-driven processes, while putting New European Bauhaus values of sustainability and inclusion into practice.
Localizing methods, building bridges: During the exchange, the methodology was reframed in Marseille’s cultural and linguistic context as:
À table (Order-It)
À emporter (Walk-It)
À l’infini (Dream-It)
This playful translation deepened local resonance and opened up new forms of engagement. Working alongside La Friche and CHRONIQUES, Aks also strengthened their transnational capacity and created bridges between residents, emerging creatives, and local stakeholders.
A layered five-day journey: The program unfolded step by step:
Day 1: Walking the streets of La Friche: observing, listening, and grounding.
Day 2 (Walk-It / À emporter): Mapping and collective walks with residents.
Day 3 (Order-It / À table): Gathering voices and needs in the form of playful “orders”.
Day 4 (Dream-It / À l’infini): Performative interventions and storytelling to imagine futures.
Day 5: Synthesizing insights into visual maps and narrative reflections.
Alongside this structured work, the team immersed themselves in Marseille’s cultural life: from the Modern Art Fair at La Friche to a rooftop concert at La Fiesta des Suds, experiencing the city’s artistic vibrancy first-hand.
Seeds for future collaboration: The exchange sparked new collaborations with La Friche and CHRONIQUES, including:
Integrating the methodology into community-based projects in Marseille.
Co-developing a transnational placemaking toolkit combining digital storytelling and participatory prototyping.
Linking Marseille with earlier Aks projects in Augsburg and Malmö, creating a triangle of shared learning on reclaiming neighborhoods through creativity.
Learning through doing: The visit sharpened practical and relational skills: cultural adaptation, multilingual facilitation, performative participation, and atmosphere reading in cultural events. Most importantly, it fostered a polyphonic community of care, connecting residents, youth, artists, institutions, and local stakeholders.
