With the implementation of the project, we intended to: 1. Test new forms of learning in higher education through the development of community and project-based learning methodologies focused on the cities where students live. We believe that the knowledge and skills acquired by the students during the project will be useful for their professional and personal future. 2. Promote the adoption of innovative and collaborative learning and knowledge transfer practices in Higher Education, by working in close cooperation with different stakeholders: regional and local administration, non-profit associations, educational institutions, small businesses, citizens. 3. Contribute to the civic participation and democratic spirit of university students by involving them in placemaking projects that might contribute to the regeneration of places with low social dynamism through the activation of relationships with communities. 4. Promote the exchange of ideas and good practices between the project partners and other European organisations working on placemaking, feeding the partner’s network of international contacts.
The needs identified were: 1. Lack of participation by citizens and especially university students in public life. We believe that students can be agents of positive change and wished to offer them the opportunity to express their ideas and contribute to the improvement of their cities, by making public spaces more participatory, functional, beautiful, sustainable and happy, in accordance with the principles of the New European Bauhaus. 2. Universities are still very much centred on models of unidirectional transmission of knowledge in segmented disciplinary areas, which results in a lack of opportunity for students to work on projects with effective social impact with contributions from different scientific areas. With PLAY/ACT we wanted to contribute to the development of the students' sense of critical thinking and civic responsibility using cross-disciplinary project-based learning approaches. 3. The public space has been losing importance as a place for socialising and expressing democratic life, due to the isolation of citizens in the digital world, the growing individualism of contemporary societies and the commodification of cities, which in many cases have become spaces for consumption rather than spaces for being.