Social Acceptance of Urban Spaces Rehabilitation in a Climate Change Adaptation and Biodiversity Framework

The creative project entitled ‘‘Reimagining of the Cardinal Points Fountain as a biodiversity island” reunited eleven multidisciplinary teams from the Faculty of Arts and Design, the Faculty of Chemistry, Biology and Geography and the Faculty of Sociology and Psychology of the West University of Timisoara, aiming, on one hand, to boost co-creation amongst students and members of civil society, and on the other to include principles of citizen participation as a means of increasing socially acceptance of the urban change. In short, the purpose of this trans-disciplinary student project was to propose alternative routes for the rehabilitation of the “Cardinal Points” Fountain by actively engaging citizens in the co-creation of the desirable new model. Within multidisciplinary teams, the methods employed varied, and embedded in each discipline. Biology students identified plant species suitable for this project through bibliographic documentation of different categories of plants, psychology students measured the social perception of local citizens through two questionnaires developed for this purpose, whereas arts students integrated the results from the other two disciplines and creatively imagined the new vision of the landmark using technologically assisted rendering. The citizen participation was ensured by two questionnaires, one before the new visions of the fountain were created and one after, urging citizens to vote for their most preferred vision. This trans-disciplinary method resulted in eleven imagined versions of the fountain being created based on scientific methods, encompassing both suitable vegetation for the landmark and the attitudes and perceptions of citizens. The future directions refer to the integration of his research in the actual urban rehabilitation of the “Cardinal Points” Fountain as an island of biodiversity. This purpose will be served by an open dialogue between multi-stakeholders, and alternatively, the research result can be integrated into other projects that lead to the urban regeneration of Timisoara.