Sleeping Beauty · AWAKENING SLEEPING BEAUTIES: UNLOCKING NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AND NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS VALUES FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE, INCLUSIVE AND RESILIENT SOCIETY

The SLEEPING BEAUTY project aims to rejuvenate neglected urban, peri-urban, and rural spaces across Europe through the integration of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and the core values of the New European Bauhaus (NEB). By addressing diverse climatic contexts, this initiative promotes sustainable, inclusive, and resilient communities. The project leverages NBS to enhance biodiversity, foster natural beauty, and provide multifunctional public spaces, aligning with NEB’s principles of sustainability, beauty, and inclusiveness.SLEEPING BEAUTY seeks to transform underutilized and overlooked spaces into vibrant, biodiverse areas that reconnect people with nature. This holistic, co-creative approach combines innovative design and artistic interventions, encouraging collaboration among citizens, experts, and local stakeholders. These efforts will help reshape public spaces, strengthen community ties, and foster a shared sense for caretaking of environment.By emphasizing the creative re-use and revitalization of spaces, the project will demonstrate how integrating NEB and NBS can lead to improved well-being, enhanced biodiversity, and more resilient and beautiful communities. The project’s six pilot sites will serve as showcases for replicating and scaling NBS-NEB solutions across Europe, contributing to a systemic shift in how we design, interact with, and maintain public spaces in close connection with nature and cultural heritage. The initiative promotes long-term societal transformation, focusing on strengthening human-nature relationships, cultural identity, and collective action to address pressing societal challenges like climate change.SLEEPING BEAUTY’s unique blend of artistic co-creation, sustainable spatial planning and innovation will push beyond traditional NBS approaches, setting a new gold standard for innovative, inclusive, and aesthetically compelling public spaces enabled by NEB-NBS and a new Natur-Baukultur.