Placemaking is an effective tool for revitalizing public spaces, promoting collective ownership, and fostering inclusivity. This paper, within the framework of InclusiveCity, an ongoing European project exploring placemaking and the 15-minute city concept through social inclusion and diversity, investigates how placemaking can be framed around care, engage underrepresented groups and address the challenges of touristification at Vienna's Donaukanal. It is a significant public space within the city’s urban fabric, yet it is often underused. However, recent trends in commercialization and overregulation in the city center have undermined local appropriation and care, leading instead to increased touristification.

InclusiveCity's Urban Living Lab (ULL) is testing innovative placemaking strategies to re-imagine Donaukanal as a recreational space for the local population and its potential for climate adaptation in times of climate crisis. Through participatory interventions, the ULL fosters direct engagement with the canal, especially the water, to make it more accessible to underrepresented groups, such as the elderly and children, within the 15-minute city framework. Interventions include water playgrounds, urban river swimming with local NGO Schwimmverein Donaukanal, and prototypes for cooling infrastructure for older adults. By integrating local needs and perspectives, the ULL seeks to develop new imaginaries of the Donaukanal area.

This paper explores how inclusive placemaking strategies, framed around care, can create accessible and inclusive waterfront public spaces. By viewing space as relational, placemaking efforts aim not only to maintain and revitalize Donaukanal but also to promote collective ownership and inclusion. Involving children, youth, and the elderly in the co-creation and upkeep of public spaces strengthens emotional connections to the canal, counteracting overtouristification by prioritizing everyday users and their needs. Through this process, the project seeks to foster a more inclusive, care-based public space for all.

Well-designed public spaces significantly impact people's experiences and urban well-being. However, the abstract concept of “experience” is often difficult to define and operationalise for urban planners and designers (Duerden et al., 2019; Relph, 1976). To address this challenge, the MEPS-framework was developed through a multidisciplinary literature review spanning psychology, sociology, service marketing, urban planning, and architecture (Pijls et al.,2024). It provides a structured approach to understanding and enhancing visitors' experience of public spaces, contributing to effective placemaking strategies. Unlike conventional models that treat experience as a singular concept, MEPS differentiates between individual perceptions and external influencing factors, making it a practical tool for urban design.

The framework is built on three core components: appearance, usability, and connection. Appearance refers to the sensory and aesthetic qualities of a place, influenced by elements such as colours, materials, light, sound, and temperature, which together shape the immediate impression of an environment. Usability concerns the extent to which a space supports people’s needs and activities, including social interaction, recreation, and mobility, ensuring that it is functional for diverse users. Lastly, connection represents the emotional and symbolic attachment individuals feel toward a place, shaped by meaningful experiences, personal memories and cultural significance, all of which contribute to a deeper sense of belonging.

This paper demonstrates the validation of the framework through research projects examining the experience of both local communities and external visitors, including:

• Creating experience guidelines for urban design
• Studying the arrival experiences of city gateways on visitor’s first impressions and destination image.
• Exploring the role of public space in the retention of young professionals, emphasizing how meaningful interactions contribute to destination loyalty.

The paper shows how the MEPS-framework serves as a helpful tool in designing attractive, supportive and connecting urban spaces that enriches the experience for visitors. By ensuring that public spaces are not only functional but also contribute to a city's appeal and meaningful interactions, this approach strengthens placemaking efforts and enhances the overall urban experience.

Cappadocia, a UNESCO-listed cultural landscape, is a prime example of entangled placemaking, where tourism development, heritage conservation, and local livelihoods are deeply intertwined. The region is not only a site of exceptional geological formations and historical ruins but also home to vibrant urban settlements such as Nevşehir, Ürgüp, and Avanos, where local communities navigate the complex intersections of tourism, urban development, and heritage conservation. Over the past decades, increasing tourism pressure has intensified conflicts between economic interests and environmental and cultural sustainability. In response, the Turkish government established the Cappadocia Area Presidency, a centralized authority consolidating decision-making power under a single institution. However, rather than ensuring sustainable governance, this institution has accelerated tourism-driven transformation, sidelining local actors and heritage conservation efforts.

One of the most controversial initiatives of the Presidency was the introduction of a new zoning plan, which aimed to relax construction restrictions in ecologically and culturally sensitive areas. This plan sparked resistance from local communities, environmental groups, and conservation experts, ultimately leading to a court ruling suspending its implementation. Another critical example of such contested interventions is the Göreme-Ortahisar road project, which was approved by the Presidency despite concerns that it would damage the region’s historical and geological integrity. Critics argue that such infrastructure projects, rather than facilitating sustainable tourism, contribute to the commodification and destruction of the very landscapes that make Cappadocia unique​.

This paper critically examines Cappadocia as a contested site of entangled placemaking, where the interplay between centralized governance, global tourism markets, and local resistance shapes the region’s spatial and socio-economic transformations. The governance model imposed by the Cappadocia Area Presidency not only affects rural heritage sites but also disrupts the urban fabric of local settlements, altering land use patterns, accelerating gentrification, and intensifying socio-economic inequalities. The paper argues that the centralization of governance under a single institution weakens democratic participation, restricts local agency, and imposes a top-down approach that prioritizes short-term economic gains over long-term sustainability. In contrast, a more localized, democratic, and participatory conservation model—one that involves local communities, experts, and civic organizations—would foster more effective and context-sensitive heritage protection. By analyzing the governance mechanisms of the Cappadocia Area Presidency and its implications for both urban and rural development, this paper demonstrates how top-down governance reinforces extractivist tourism policies, exacerbating environmental degradation and cultural loss.

Hotels & Local Community, exploring innovative engagement strategies

How can hotels engage with local communities, interconnect with local stakeholders, play a pivotal role in value co-creation, placemaking; and how would this align with or challenge their business model and values?

Format: workshop, preferably on location at The Social Hub (tbd) and/or involvement of TSH representatives (GM, connector, community manager). With input from the Teaching Case (assuming permission JHTC) which includes supportive literature, with an interactive format (e.g. visiting the hotel, and exploring the neighborhood, resident perspective). Interactive format, presenting findings to and discussion with TSH representatives.

The study case: The Social Hub provides a basis for this workshop, which preferably (tbd) will be on site at the The Social Hub Vienna premises, to enhance the real-life experience and discussion. The study case builds on the Teaching Case, submitted to JHTC, and will provide valuable input for further improving the teaching case, for future use by students, industry and educators.

The Social Hub operates with a hybrid hospitality concept that fosters community and encourages interactions among guests. It engages with the local community and aims to improve society. Built on strong values and beliefs, The Social Hub strives to be more than just a hotel; it serves as a hub that provides community spaces and empowers changemakers. Currently, the primary focus is on building the internal (on-premises) community, but The Social Hub is actively exploring strategies to engage with residents and businesses effectively. Adding to their innovative approach, The Social Hub faces interesting challenges and opportunities to create value and growth by further engaging with the surrounding community.

If TSH will not take part, the format can be adapted.

What do people need to appropriate or shape public spaces according to their needs? Exactly - Tools!

Zuko is just such a tool. With Zuko, it becomes easier and more flexible to utilize public spaces. People can sit anywhere - in the shade, in the sun, alone, with friends, or simply enjoy the view. The flexible concept temporarily transforms empty corners and unused squares into places of exchange and life. It extends our own living room into the urban space.

Under the motto "Reclaim the Streets", Zuko invites everyone to actively use, claim, and shape urban space. This idea is at the heart of the project and aligns with SDG Goal 11.7: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

As part of the Local Agenda 21 Vienna (UN action plan), the Grätzlsitz (=neighborhood chair) initiative was launched in 2021 to test the concept at Elisabethplatz in Vienna’s fourth district. Today, Zuko offers the service for free at all four locations in Vienna and Germany. At one Vienna location alone, statistics from a one-year period show that 562 chairs were rented, with a median usage time of 36.1 minutes. This means public space was used for over 474 hours as an urban living room.

Zuko promotes an active outdoor lifestyle and encourages people to reclaim urban spaces. The more life takes place in public spaces, the more attractive the area becomes. Zuko supports shaping our urban spaces into future vibrant and inclusive neighborhoods.