About

We are an interdisciplinary platform for urban research,
place-making & co-design, community art initiatives & non-formal learning.
Our mission is to promote and support participatory urban culture
by identifying and actualising the areas’ potential through
creative initiatives and community arts in underused public spaces.
We facilitate inclusive cultural development of the neighbourhoods and regions
and develop creative solutions (tool, games, routes) that foster
the local networks of trust and place identity.
Active as a group since 2oo7,  active as an NGO since 2oo9.
In 2o16, our team became an ambassador of the New Urban Agenda for the EU.

Initiatives

Most of our initiatives are long-term. This commitment allows to achieve sustainable positive social effects and build strong local, regional and international networks. We know for sure that placemaking, participatory development, and place management are not one-time actions; they require many years to sustain. Our main challenge is a deep emotional attachment to the places where we have been working for years.

Šnipiškės - placemaking and community development, Dragons field, Laimikis

Burbuliatorius

Soap bubbles event is arranged in the public spaces every second Monday during warm season. Our simple scenario for revitalisation of public space brought together more than 32 cities and towns around the world. It also was instrumental in bringing Lithuanian communities together to the parks and squares in the Nordic countries and the UK, creating informal places for joy for everyone who wanted to join. Tested in 2008, officially started in 2009.

Urban contrast in Šnipiškės, Laimikis.lt

Šnipiškės

We picked this wooden neighbourhood for study and placemaking initiatives as a challenge because we were fascinated by its unique, multilayered history and village-like atmosphere. At the same time, it was a neglected area with a strong negative image supported by mass media. Together with Šnipiškės inhabitants, we succeeded in revitalising public spaces, creating cultural routes and helping the local community to grow. Started in 2012, ongoing.

Co-urbanism-Laimikis-2019

Co-urbanism

Co-urbanism is a learning platform in the heart of which are inclusive city development and placemaking. It is run in the form of annual forum, hands-on workshops, round tables and publishing, and brings together urban practitioners, city planners, architects, cultural and social workers, and communities leaders from the Baltic Sea Region and beyond for sharing caces, practices and methods. Launched in 2014 in Vilnius and Minsk, ongoing.

Tools

As cultural innovators, we develop all kinds of engaging formats, that serve miltiply purpuses:
– they are methods for better understanding the potential of the places and theirs social dynamics;
– they are communication tools fostering new networks of trust in public spaces and in the neighbourhoods;
– they are learning methods that engage various groups;
– they are creative scenarios that make places vibrant :)

Fields of Expertise and Services

Arts-based research

When analysing the use and potential of urban spaces, we utilise artistic and co-design methods to gain a deeper understanding of the place.

We employ community art to discover the area's potential and promote the development of trust networks among the users of the space. Together, we test various usage scenarios and co-design the urban space. We believe that the research process should contribute to the well-being of the users of the area - this is the primary principle upon which Laimikis activities are founded. That's why our toolbox is growing - we love developing and testing new artistic solutions for public spaces and neighbourhoods.

We participated in collective exhibitions, biennales and triennales in Berlin, Paris, Gdansk, Shenzhen, Minsk, Riga, and Vilnius.

Games and routes

We develop and launch games and cultural routes in urban and rural environments.

New routes and connections between places are capable of creating new image of the area. Spatial games are a powerful tool to redefine how people use and perceive places. City games can be a useful tool for directing and organizing large crowds during mega-event. While developing creative solutions, we identify and draw upon the local cultural and natural potencial. We enjoy cooperating with local people and learning from local knowledge!

We have developed cultural routes and urban games for UNESCO sites, and neglected areas, Romania's Centenary, and Kaunas 2022 opening.

Workshops and courses

We have over 20 years of experience in formal and informal education. We run hands-on workshops in participatory planning, urban ethnography, co-design, games design, and urban arts. We also guide schools in Urban Studies.

As lecturers and consultants, we navigate the topics of green cities and circular skills, place identity and its creative communication, cultural planning, participatory development, revitalisation of the neighbourhoods and public spaces, and many more. Our audiences are children, youngsters, adults and mixed groups.

We enjoyed running courses and workshops in Alba Iulia, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Belgrade, Berlin, Espoo, Kaunas, London, Lviv, Marseille, Minsk, Pula, Riga, Stirling, St.Petersburg, Šiauliai, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Utena, etc.

Projects

Our focus, in partnership with European institutions and organisations, is on citizen-driven cultural development of urban and rural areas. As urban practitioners, researchers and educators, we explore the role of cultural innovations, arts and non-formal education in fostering the local communities and sense of place, revitalising neglected places, and contributing to the societal resilience and activation of the local heritage. By using arts-based research we map local resources and help local organisations and people to activate them and use strtegically.

News

Come to Yard (Išeik į kiemą)

What: a series of tours to the yards, guided by the locals (LT: Ekskursijų-pasivaikščiojimų serija „Išeik į kiemą“). For the guides, it provides a chance to actualise and share the memories and experiences connected to certain locations in the city. For the attendants, these excursions Idea: Shared yards are places of collective memory. Even though…

Zero Hero – educational card game

Name: Zero Hero (educational game for the groups of schoolchildren) Challenge/task: To create an educational tool that makes the topic of recycling entertaining and playful for schoolkids – primary schools and the first classes of secondary school. Client: Antakalnis City Lab that promotes zero waste movement to visitors of various age. Solution: We divided a topic…

Local stories & urban game: seminar

Call for a practical seminar for the curators of cultural organisations and active residents, which covers creative communication methods, capacity building for cultural organisations by mapping their hidden resources, and testing the games, one of which was developed during “I_Improve” project. Working language: Lithuanian. Mūsų paskutinio seminaro dalyviai klausė, kada galės išbandyti žaidimus gyvai: netrukus!…

Unwelcome guide (Vilnius international theatre festival “Sirenos”)

International Vilnius theatre festival “Sirenos” has launched Vilnius audioguide “Unwelcome” with 8 peculiar stops, among which there is a stop by the “Quay’s Arch” by Vladas Urbanavičius (installed during Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009 and mostly known by its alternative name – a Pipe), which evoked heated discussions about contemporary art in public…

Method Roulette

Method Roulette is a tool for cultural innovations that enable organisations to find out their hidden resources and to create methods for cultural interventions. It helps to define targets, goals, and resources, matching them with the participatory methods.

Co-urbanism 2020 | Vilnius Urban Lab

Co-urbanism brings together urban practitioners, researchers, community leaders, community artists, and policymakers to share methods and practices in the cooperative cultural development of urban spaces. In 2020, we arranged it as an online Vilnius Urban Lab because of the lockdown restrictions. The topic of this co-urbanism event is “Cooperative Development of Urban Spaces”. We invite…

Burbuliatorius

Burbuliatorius (Bubble your city) is the annual and periodic open-source urban event in different world cities on the same day, every second Monday, at 18.30 (local time). It starts in late May and finishes in September. The event aims to revitalize deactivated public spaces and to encourage inhabitants to explore the potential of public spaces…

Culturability: Exploring Visaginas City Identity – participatory approach (NCM)

Project title: Visaginas: Participatory Approaches Toward Developing the Identity of the City Partners: Danish Cultural Institute (Leader), City of Pori, Culturability network, Laboratory for Urban Games and Research Laimikis.lt Every consortium partner explored the local cultural resources and the existing networks of cultural actors in the chosen areas. Based on materials collected during participatory research,…