Thank you, Madrid!

From 30 September to 2 October, the STARTUP consortium gathered in Madrid — hosted by Universidad Complutense de Madrid — for a working meeting to learn about, and from, the local cultural initiatives (LCPs) at the heart of our research into creative placemaking and the New European Bauhaus.

The centrepiece of the week was a day of “urban drifts”: ethnographic walks through the neighbourhoods of Arganzuela, Usera and Centro, followed by conversations with the people behind five LCPs:

Infinito Delicias (Arganzuela), where the day began with a guided visit
Espacio Afro (Arganzuela)
La Parcería (Arganzuela)
Radio Relativa (Usera)
Esto es Pez (Centro), hosted at the municipal Casa del Cura

Reading the streets, observing the urban fabric and speaking directly with founders gave us rich material for WP7’s cross-evaluation of how cultural initiatives shape their territories.
Around the fieldwork, the consortium pushed forward on WP4’s Living Lab trials, WP5’s spatial processes and adaptive reuse, WP3’s local workshops and peer-reviewed case studies, WP6’s city-report analyses, WP7’s shared indicators and evaluation methodology, plus a session on open science and community-building.

A huge thank you to UCM, Zuloark and the Madrid LCPs for a generous and thought-provoking few days. 🙌

Keep an eye out for more detailed glimpses into each LCP that was visited over the coming days and weeks!