What is Liveability?
The Liveability Project was created to help cities and municipalities respond to complex, interconnected challenges — from social inequality, loneliness, and empty city centres to climate change and migration — by strengthening societal resilience.
While these challenges are global, the solutions must be local: creative, adaptive, and grounded in each city’s unique context.
At its core, the Liveability Project is more than a response to urban pressures. It is a framework that enables cities to navigate complexity, embrace change, and foster collaboration — even when interests differ.
How We Understand Liveability
Liveability is deeply connected to a sense of belonging — a feeling of pride and empowerment that grows from shared spaces and strong communities.
It is about creating meaningful places where people feel part of something larger, where daily life is not only easier but more fulfilling.
The Liveable Cities Journey
The project supports city officials, practitioners, and citizens in developing the tools, methods, and mindset needed to regenerate urban environments and build resilience.
This is not a single action but a journey — one that we call the Liveability Design Approach (LDA).
Co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, the Liveability Project brings together 11 core partners, including six cities — Kiel (DE), Gdynia (PL), Guldborgsund (DK), Kolding (DK), Pori (FI), and Riga (LV) — alongside 15 associated organisations from academia, civil society, and the public sector.
Together, we are forming a growing Network of Liveable Cities — a community that shares knowledge and experience on design methods, placemaking, and citizen engagement, open to cities of all sizes across the Baltic Sea Region.
The Role of Public Interest Design
Design plays a central role in Liveability — not just as a tool for solving problems, but as a mechanism for systemic change.
We use Public Interest Design (PID) as our guiding approach. PID is socially responsible, community-centred, and focused on the common good. It brings diverse perspectives together to co-create solutions that make cities fairer, more sustainable, and more liveable.
By engaging different stakeholders — from residents to policymakers — public interest design ensures that innovation remains inclusive, responsive, and grounded in real needs.
The Liveability Design Approach
Liveability Design ApproachAt the heart of our vision is the Liveability Design Approach — a capacity-building framework that helps cities turn their ambitions into action.
Like the petals of a flower, each element of the approach represents a key aspect of building more liveable cities. Together, they form a complete ecosystem of learning, practice, and collaboration.
Watch this video to explore the elements of the Liveability flower.
The Liveability Design Approach consists of three interlinked components that have been co-developed, tested, and shared among partner cities:
Liveable Cities Network - Genesis
In this video, Andrea Cederquist of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein — lead partner of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Liveability Project (2023–2025) — introduces the origins of the initiative and its vision for creating more liveable cities through cooperation and design.
A Capacity Building Programme
The Liveability Design Approach is a capacity building programme, that consists of three interlinked components, that have been developed, piloted and distributed: The Charter for Designing Liveable Cities, The Liveability Practice Guide and Liveability Training Programme.
