Name: Designing for accessible waterscapes: Waterside Voices affiliated workshop
Start: Thu Oct 08 2026 14:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
End: Thu Oct 08 2026 15:30:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Location: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

This workshop explores these questions through the Waterside Voices approach, drawing on insights and methods developed through an international design research project focused on the social, spatial, and community dimensions of waterside environments. 

The workshop introduces a methodological framework developed by the Society&Action Lab, combining theoretical perspectives with practical, participatory tools for working with waterscape planning and design. Drawing on real-life Living Lab case studies from across Europe—including Brussels, Rijeka, and Budapest—the workshop examines how different communities engage with, experience, and take ownership of their waterfronts and waterside spaces. 

Participants will explore accessibility not only as a question of physical access, but as a broader principle of spatial justice, participation, belonging, and community ownership. Through a playful, hands-on planning exercise, participants will work with a waterscape scenario and experiment with ways of identifying barriers, recognising diverse needs and experiences, and developing more inclusive spatial responses. 

The workshop will introduce participants to key concepts and practical tools for: 

understanding waterscapes from multiple social and user perspectives; 

identifying physical, social, cultural, and perceptual barriers to accessibility; 

incorporating diverse voices and lived experiences into spatial planning; 

strengthening community participation and ownership in waterside development; 

translating participatory insights into spatial and design strategies; and 

working collaboratively with uncertainty, competing interests, and different visions for the future of waterside spaces. 

Rather than focusing on a single “ideal” design solution, the workshop emphasises the process of co-creating waterscapes with and for diverse communities. By combining case-based learning, participatory methods, and playful spatial experimentation, it invites participants to reflect on how planning and design practices can contribute to more accessible, inclusive, and community-owned waterscapes. 

The workshop is intended for planners, architects, landscape architects, designers, researchers, community practitioners, and others interested in participatory approaches to the transformation of waterside environments.

The initiative titled Waterside Voices is being implemented as part of the international project Waterside Voices: Connecting Communities to Waterscapes, with the identification number 101172777, which has been successfully supported under the Creative Europe programme. Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design is participating in the project as an associated partner. The university’s role in this international collaboration is supported by project number 2020-2.1.1-ED-2024-00350, financed by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

Designing for accessible waterscapes: Waterside Voices affiliated workshop

How can waterscapes be designed as places that are accessible, inclusive, and genuinely shaped by the communities who use them?