In November 2016, an open call led us on a search for a municipality to participate in the project Sustainable Urban Regeneration - a set of coordinated activities that improve urban environment and quality of life in a selected urban area through cooperation between different stakeholder groups. The advantage of such an approach is that it does not address individual environmental challenges in cities, separately but rather, it responds to several environmental challenges simultaneously by focusing on the space and the people who use and manage it.

Eight Slovenian municipalities applied, and we chose to collaborate with the town of Idrija. Home to about 8,000 inhabitants, with a complex topography and numerous cultural heritage sites, the town presented a unique challenge for urban regeneration. Over the course of one year, we tried to renovate a part of the public space in Idrija in a manner that was friendly to the residents as well as the environment.  At the same time, we wanted to create a long-term vision to improve the quality of life in the selected part of town.

Through field work and in cooperation with the residents, we determined how they use this public space, what their expectations are, and how we can renovate and improve it together. We prepared analyses which combined our field research and the municipal strategies.

Based on the responses and wishes of the residents and spatial analyses, we made a series of urban furniture designs for Arkova Street, which runs through the entire area. We made 8 pieces of furniture – benches, table, tree troughs and information boards - from wooden boards and metal bases of school chairs and tables, added trash cans, a bicycle stand and a new streetlamp and placed them along Arkova Street. Our furniture making activities took place on the street and in this way, we got in touch with many residents and visitors in the area. After a two-month test phase, we organized a meeting with the residents, where we summed up the responses to the new street furniture and agreed on what will be left, what will be moved elsewhere and what will be removed. In addition, we showed the residents our proposal for the renovation of the public areas of the neighbourhood and discussed long-term ideas for this area. At the end of the project, we prepared an Action Plan for the Municipality of Idrija, which contains a set of short-term and long-term activities, based on which the municipality will be able to plan interventions to improve the quality of life in this area.

Essential for the project was also a series of trainings for municipal employees in Idrija. The objectives were raising awareness of inclusive and integrated urban development, the importance of urban renewal and transferring knowledge and skills to involve residents in decision-making processes. With representatives of the municipality of Idrija, we also went to Vienna, where we learned about the work of the local office of urban renewal and selected smaller spatial interventions that can be transferred to Slovenian cities.