Co-Designing Urban Interventions Through the Lens of SDGs: Insights From the IN-HABIT Project in Nitra, Slovakia

Abstract

Collaborative efforts and vertical and horizontal cooperation of stakeholders representing diverse interests are crucial for the effective achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In urban planning practice, however, coordination of more technocratic and bureaucratic top-down processes and community-driven bottom-up efforts encounters many, sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The Horizon 2020 IN-HABIT project, implemented in four European cities, brings together universities, the local public sector, and non-governmental partners to co-design, co-deploy, and co-manage integrated solutions, combining technological, nature-based, cultural, and social innovations to promote inclusive health and wellbeing. This article focuses on the participatory co-design process of innovative interventions in the Nitra pilot, utilizing mixed methods - questionnaire surveys and stakeholder interviews - to evaluate the contribution to select SDGs perceived by three groups of stakeholders: process facilitators, experts, and policymakers; urban planners; and target groups. The findings suggest that the co-design process generally contributed to community engagement, strengthened partnerships, and enhanced the inclusiveness of public spaces. However, differences emerged in how stakeholders perceived these contributions, with target group representatives being more optimistic than the remaining participants. The article concludes with implications for urban planners and policymakers in making participatory processes more inclusive and effective for achieving sustainable urban development goals, e.g., incorporating capacity-building and educational aspects into the process or introducing innovative co-design methods like participatory site-specific art residencies or other methods involving direct implementation of co-designed solutions.