Marseille has seen recent major problems of space management, with deadly collapses of dilapidated buildings, and the city has very important regeneration plans. The intervention is planned for abandoned spaces in the neighbourhood of La Belle de Mai where La Friche and Chroniques are located, right in the city centre. The approach of Commoning fosters citizen-led processes where they participate in the co-design of the activities that contribute to the regeneration of the space, whilst exploring positive applications of the Nudge theory.
The pilot Marseille is thought of as a space for testing different Commoning practices that foster culture-led activities in the aim of regenerating empty urban spaces in a participatory way. The implementation of this long experimentation has led the pilot team to fully test the bottom-up approach and integrate members of their local coalition in different stages, including sensitive mapping of the neighbourhood.
La Friche and Chroniques have teamed up with Terrains Vagues and Pepins Production after a collective decision-making process with their local coalition, two local associations specialised in architecture, urban greening and co-design of participatory cultural actions.
Over the next few months, the pilot Marseille grows and blossoms in a garden located in Crimée street that embodies different aspects that the project seeks to explore common spaces, commoning practices, greening spaces and the different relationships between human and non-human beings.
During the co-design workshops, the inhabitants and users of the garden will be engaged into collective activities and create cooperation dynamics that will perdure even after the end of Future DiverCities project.
