Background

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, with approximately 260 000 inhabitants is a cultural and administrative centre and has the highest GDP in the country. The city, which provides services for approximately a quarter of Slovenian citizens, has been experiencing similar problems as other urban centres, ranging from traffic issues, outdated infrastructure, to slowly degrading areas. In the last twenty years people have been moving out of the centre into the outskirts, while still commuting to the centre to work. The transformation from a local urban centre into a regional metropolitan knot has brought along several changes and challenges. How can Ljubljana, therefore cope with the future challenges and keep up the pace with other cities?

Objectives

The Future City Game in Ljubljana focused on a city as a whole and participating teams were challenged to come up with ideas that would in ten year’s time make Ljubljana a better place to live and work in and help it to become a world city. The game was co-organised by the Department for Spatial Management at Ljubljana Municipality and enabled city administration to gain an interesting insight into the residents’ views, wishes, and ideas about improving the quality of life in the city.

Winning idea

Do - Undo

The winning team presented the case for a greater inclusion of city residents into decision-making by establishing an online collaboration space and bringing together residents, city representatives, architects, urban planners, investors, city visitors, etc. The idea also encourages civic actions by engaging the residents in small interventions, such as flowering certain city areas, repairing benches, etc. Cities evolve; buildings stay the same and mark the cities for a long time. What can the residents do, if the decision to build something was not a good one? Even though the team’s idea of a democratically implemented destruction of buildings seems to be a bit anarchistic, it poses questions of responsibility, city’s evolvement, etc. The idea is that all the above mentioned involved parties decide which buildings no longer serve their purpose and can be demolished; they are then put to a vote. The one that receives the most votes goes down in a spectacular way, making space for something better or more functional.

Winning ideas from the other teams

Places of Periodical Meetings

This team’s idea encourages the inhabitants to engage more actively into the city’s life by establishing a network of meeting places around the city, where local creative people would be given the opportunity to showcase their creative work. Events would be organised locally by the community, for the community. The idea provides a revitalisation plan for various parts of the city, breathing life into places with a great number of residents but where nothing much is happening.

The Best Hosts

What can Ljubljana offer tourists and how can they get the most from the city? This team’s idea establishes a network of locals from different backgrounds enabling the tourist to choose a host that suits them best – a designer could connect with a Ljubljana-based designer to show him the city through his eyes, a musician could experience Ljubljana through its musical offer.

Everybody is Playing the Future City Game


The Future City Game brings together representatives of city administrations and residents and enables a fruitful cooperation. How could society use the Future City Game to solve a diverse set of issues? This team was interested in the process of the game and focused on the facilitation of participation in decision-making. The adjusted versions of Future City Game would be played by all generations. The game would provide a space for people to express their views on the city’s future, their wishes and needs.