Our first 6 months - in numbers
Not a bad start. We set ourselves the task of building a community and six months on we've managed to cram in so much more than we expected, setting the scene for how we plan to take things forward.
What you can read about in this newsletter
OPU in numbers - what we’ve achieved so far
From imagining cities to building cities at AfroBanana
Urban Stories Vol.2: Park Tour
Save the dates! June at OPU
OPU in numbers - what we’ve achieved so far
We started our journey as OPU Collective only six months ago… We tried to establish a presence in Cyprus, communicating with other socially-engaged organisations and asking the question:
Are there (other) individuals who dream of a more inclusive and resilient city (and also have time to contribute towards this direction)?
What happened next speaks for itself as we:
established our first (Work in Progress) OPU physical space, OPU House
co-organised 20+ bike rides with our friends @ratio_cycling_club,
introduced the concept of CurioCity walks
hosted 14 workshops
Some highlights from our activities are the collaboration with After:noon for the Around Nicosia bike ride which attracted more than 80 urban cyclists, Mahmoud’s AI workshop, our cosy storytelling nights, our first workshop abroad (more on that below)! And we’ve also developed a bit of a habit for BBQs in our garden.
What do we want to improve?
We need to encourage the diversity of our members and become even more inclusive
We believe that our community must grow and more individuals to join and take ownership of projects
We are looking for a facilitator for OPU’s physical space that will ensure the space is open every day
We want to improve the Collective’s physical space with more plants and furniture that will create a pleasant homely environment that people don’t want to leave
We want to identify ways to better communicate our events
We believe that we have to identify ways to break the existing bubble of communication and collaboration between NGOs, business and academia
We can’t wait to kick off more meaningful projects with real physical impact and transition from hosting workshops to actions.
We must explore ways to ensure that this initiative is financially sustainable, independent and resilient
How you can help
In any way you can. We even need gardeners. And we have working groups on all different topics, from media strategy, neighbourhood planning, events, to running OPU House so just get in touch.
We are about to start our first major intervention for European Mobility Week, running from 16-24 September it’s probably the most important week of the year for us and we are setting up a group to plan our actions. So help us kickstart some permanent changes in the way we move around our cities.
There are definitely things that we missed out so we encourage you to get back to us, DM us or send us an email or even better to knock our door to share your feedback and fresh ideas.
From imagining cities to building cities at AfroBanana
On 25 May we were at This is AfroBanana x Athens, where together with Athens-based Astylab we called on festivalgoers to Imagine a City. We handed out blank versions of the festival’s emblematic amphora (the theme of this year’s festival poster) and people drew what their city was like now, and how they would like it to be in future.
It was a fantastic opportunity to chat to people of all ages. There was great enthusiasm and grand visions of new worlds, adding elements of play, colour, nature and more.
You can see these visions exhibited at OPU House from 12/6/24 -1/7/24.
It’s just a warmup for our game, Build a City, which we invite you to play with us at AfroBanana, Lefkara 4-5-6-7 July.
Build a City is an interactive play session using recyclable materials as building blocks for a city, where we call on you to use these items to build up different versions of a city, only to be torn down every 20 minutes. It will take place on Thursday and Friday, 4 and 5 July at 20.00 and on Saturday 6 July at 19.30. inside the festival grounds.
On Friday 5 July we will also host a craft session before setting up our game, where we will paint the recyclable materials that will become the building blocks for our city. Paint a City starts at 18.00, inside the festival grounds, and is particularly aimed to engage children aged 3+ to think about how cities are made up and have fun doing it.
On Saturday morning we will also be leading a special edition of CurioCity together with Terra Cypria at 10.30. Anyone can join, the meeting point is the parklet (δασούδι) next to the Lefkara primary school.
We have a pair of tickets to draw for our newsletter subscribers so do share our newsletter and sign up for a chance to win tickets to this year’s AfroBanana festival.
Urban Stories Vol.2: Park Tour
by Brussels-based architect Iacovos Serifis
PART 1: The importance of diverse green spaces in our cities
As I write this, I'm sitting on a bench at a cozy calm corner, watching people passing by through the linear part of this park, all while hearing bees… and some vehicle in the distance.
Some are jogging with their dogs, some others are biking to their work.
Cities need green spaces like this one, which not only serve as recreational spaces but are also integrated into the network of the city.
This way people can use it for various reasons in different moments throughout the day and week.
What if we use the linear park in Nicosia to commute to work?
PART 2: Social economy
The hidden gem of this park is a glass greenhouse. There you can have coffee, workshops, and rest for a bit before continuing your casual running. It is a community project: designed and built by people of the surrounding neighborhoods. A process to strengthen the collective care for the park for its best maintenance. That resulted to its hybrid governance, between the state and nonprofit collectives.
PART 3: Circular economy
It took me some months to realise that one of the playgrounds in this park was made mainly by old metal railways. Indeed, the park was designed as redevelopment of an abandoned tramline. So, in the process of reducing its ecological impact, reuse of existing materials in the site is highly recommended - and it should be considered in more public projects!
