Public Spaces (KözTerek)

By starting the ECOC Public Spaces (’KözTerek’) project, we strove to develop personal meeting spaces for community organisations. 

Community building is a core value of our programme. It is the people who live there that make a truly exciting European Capital of Culture vibrant and meaningful. To achieve our goal, it is essential that people of all ages and from all walks of life meet, get to know, understand and accept each other. Creating public spaces and programs, as envisaged in the VEB2023 programme, will generate new opportunities for a dynamic network of relationships. 

Two Public Spaces opened in Veszprém in 2021 and we continue working with our partners to fill them with programmes. Home | ECOC Points 

The design and uniqueness of the Public Spaces

In designing the public spaces, our goal is to give each venue content and function that takes its specificities into account while it conveys the ideals and core values of the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 Programme. 

PANNON Public Space

In designing the site, university students who were in the ECOC course in the 2020/2021 academic year created the visual designs. These were then taken into account by our designers during the implementation. As a result, pallet furniture was integrated into the community space and the interior design and colour scheme were adapted to it. 

Community events were organised to support the building of the site: gardening, planting ornamental plants and painting the pallet furniture were done by people living in the neighbourhood.

Site features: 

A small project room (capacity: maximum ten people), a bigger project room (maximum 20 people) and a community space (maximum 30 people + terrace) make up the site. Connected to these is the office, the home base for the University of Pannonia staff and the student representatives.

Functions of the PANNON Public Space: 

• it is the location for ECOC communication and organisation of the University of Pannonia, a strategic partner of ECOC; 
• it provides space and a venue for student self-organization; 
• it houses the UNeECC (University Network of European Capitals of Culture) Secretariat; 
• it is a venue where ECOC grant winners can develop their projects; 
• it’s programmes and events timed to academic years reflect the spirit and values of ECOC: community-building, intergenerational game nights, series of events to introduce foreigners living among us, film clubs with discussion evenings, cultural programmes; 
• it provides the small and larger project halls and the community space for use by the ECOC programme promoters and partners through a booking system; 
• it is a platform for the development and implementation of the Generation Bridge concept. 

In a series of workshops launched in 2021, participants (high school and university students, active and retired community organisers) recruited by Pannon Space and ECOC staff designed a Generation Bridge concept, which will serve as basis of intergenerational events and activities. 

JUTASI Public Space

It is a special community space to engage the micro-communities of the housing estate, i.e., a location for a music kindergarten, LEGO club for the very young and the older, educational free-university lectures, family workshops... programmes for all ages and programmes that allow people to get together. 

Since 2021, we have been working on the elements composing the Jutasi Public Space and in 2023, we will go even farther. As we take possession of the jogging track and renew the spaces, we will fill them with programmes, including outdoor yoga, Nordic walking tours, a kindergarten and school fence drawing competition, asphalt drawing competitions, calls for photo and sound collection and community games.

The detailed programme of Jutasi Public Space is constantly updated and is available here: Jutasi Public Space | Veszprém-Balaton 2023 (ekfpontok.hu)