Residents often notice small things they would like to improve to make their neighbourhoods more pleasant and accommodating. They have ideas and time, but not the resources and knowledge to make it happen. The Outdoors (orig. Zunaj) project helped the residents of Ljubljana to carry out outdoor interventions in their immediate surroundings.

The project encourages residents to use and take care of open green spaces. It provides the municipality with new ways of productive cooperation, raises awareness of the importance and potential of open spaces, and ensures that everyone can do what they do best.

The project took place twice and each time about 60 applicants responded to the call. Each applicant revived the city’s public space in their own way. In the first year, 10 winning initiatives were selected, which we supported by covering up to 500€ for the material costs, and in the second year, 15 initiatives were selected, which we helped with coverage of up to 800€. The excess costs were covered by the applicants themselves. Each initiative received a mentor.

In two years, Outdoors has proven to be a successful tool for promoting local spatial planning and social activation. The project supported 25 winning initiatives and encouraged 800 Ljubljana’s residents to participate. Initiatives from 22 neighbourhoods and 3 neighbouring village communities were implemented. The initiators of the winning ideas often emphasized the importance of neighbourhood networking and outdoor socializing after the campaigns. Numerous actions showed how small interventions can revive the public space, and the municipality gained insight into which spaces and activities need to be considered more in the future. Positive experience shows that the project can be developed into a mechanism that can provide long-term, predictable, and continuous support to small local actions proposed by residents.

“If we want to live in a pleasant environment and achieve change, we need to connect with each other. Our biggest achievement was the question that so many residents asked: ‘When’s the next project?’”

  (Barbara Svetek and Maja Žiberna, initiators of the action in Zgornja Šiška)

“From a naïve, loosely defined idea emerged a community construction project that transcended all boundaries. We were surprised at how many people were involved in the initiative."

  (Gregor Petrič, initiator of the action in Sneberje)

Supported initiatives

2019:

• Krakovo: neighbours planted a walnut tree and set up a common outdoor table

• Tobačna: local creatives revived a neglected underpass

• Zadobrova: keen cyclists set up a new pump track

• Šiška: residents cleaned the wooded foothills of Rožnik

• Novo Polje: neighbours set up a green area for socializing

• Šiška: two locals organized a free movie night

• Vrtača: a young family assembled a mobile cart with outdoor play equipment

• Prule: "quarrelling" neighbours smoothed relations by collaborating in a work brigade and a picnic afterwards

• Šiška: students of the Šiška High School transformed the school meadow into a “beach”

• Masarykova: architecture students changed the concrete trough into a bench

2020:

• Šiška: locals repaired the benches in the park and organized a free movie night

• Poljane: neighbours renovated a playground

• Besnica: residents arranged a rest area for cyclists

• Livada: the Ljubljanica river bank became a socializing area

• Mostec: sports enthusiasts renovated a basketball court

• Sneberje: locals set up a pump track together with the children

• BS3: residents arranged a path to the back entrance and set up a bench for socializing

• Vič: employees arranged a place for lunch on the green in front of the Faculty for Civil and Geodetic Engineering

• Brod: The abandoned clearing has become a place where children learn woodworking

• Poljane: Neighbours set up an herb garden for the neighbourhood

• Šiška: Residents have arranged high flower beds for children

• Trnovo: Neighbours set up a sandpit and a mini climbing wall for children

• Murgle: a unique bench has come to life between the houses, combining a garden and a play area

• Vič: Residents have repaired benches at a local children’s playground

• Center: the Levo workshop team arranged a hangout corner