BASICC Project Final Consortium Meeting

The final consortium meeting of the Erasmus+ Project BASICC (Building Alternative Skills to Implement Creativities and Commons), in which the Sociology and Public Administration Departments of Yeditepe University are partners, was held in Riga, the capital of Latvia, from 12 to 14 June 2025. The meeting was attended by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Gençer Baykan, Public Administration Department Member and Alkım Bayraktar, a PhD student in Anthropology, on behalf of our university.

As part of the project's objective to redevelop urban abandoned areas for the benefit of the public, partner organisations from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Turkey collaborated and were hosted by Free Riga. Established in 2013, Free Riga is a non-governmental organisation that specialises in the temporary utilisation and revitalisation of derelict or underutilised buildings and spaces within the city.

On the first day of the meeting, the participants were granted a visit to Viskali, a community space that is overseen by Free Riga. Viskali functions as a community space and cultural centre, hosting a variety of events, workshops, social gatherings, and joint projects. Subsequent to the inaugural addresses and an informative tour of the location, a roundtable discussion was convened for the purpose of presenting the results of the training activities that were undertaken in Istanbul in February 2025.

The second day's sessions were held at KM12, a cultural centre supported by Free Riga. This space, which functioned as a state printing house during the Soviet Union, is now a venue for innovative art and community-oriented events. These events are organised in accordance with the philosophy of participatory urban regeneration. In the sessions held at KM12, the leaders of the work packages of the BASICC project informed the participants about the outputs of their work. A series of presentations were delivered on the subject of common spaces, whilst training sessions were conducted on the management of such spaces and the online platform https://runacommon.eu, which is to be one of the digital outputs of the project. In the afternoon, during a guided walking tour of the area where KM12 is located, the municipal authorities delivered a concise presentation on the transformation process of the Riga Central Market. Constructed in 1930, the Riga Central Market was once the largest and most technologically advanced market in Europe.

On the third and final day of the meeting, a roundtable discussion was convened with external stakeholders to evaluate the project's outputs. Furthermore, academic experts responsible for the project evaluation delivered presentations on their analyses. Following a period of deliberation, the consortium meeting in Riga concluded with a focus on collaborative group work on new project ideas and potential collaborative initiatives.