23 September urban planning

Can Small Interventions bring Change in a City? The Power of Community Engagement in Transforming Cities

The Festival “Rivers of Sofia” by the Collective on the riverbeds of Sofia in 2020 (photograph: kolektiv.bg)

We often assume that transforming a city requires considerable funding, large-scale infrastructure and complex planning. Yet sometimes urban change begins with something far simpler: noticing a neglected place, asking why it is this way, and deciding that it could serve the city differently.

This was the starting point of the “Collective”, an NGO that emerged from a group of young people in Sofia, Bulgaria, that observed and paid attention to the neglected and forgotten spaces of their city, specifically the rivers. Their initiative, “Rivers of Sofia”, demonstrates how observation, community engagement and small interventions can alter the way people perceive and use an urban space.

At the centre of the initiative were the Perlovska and Vladayska rivers, whose artificial riverbeds cut through the city center of Sofia. Although they form part of the city’s historical and natural landscape, these spaces had remained largely inaccessible and disconnected from public life for eight decades. The rivers had historically served an important role in flood management and the development of Sofia’s modern urban infrastructure, while today they remain significant for our future in the context of global warming as they function as natural coolers in the densely built urban landscape.

The Perlovska and Vladayska Rivers in Sofia before and after the 2020 intervention
The Perlovska and Vladayska Rivers in Sofia before and after the 2020 intervention. (Photograph: European Heritage Awards Archive)

By 2020, however, many parts of the river system were neglected and polluted, while historic bridges and stone structures were deteriorating. The highly engineered character of the riverbeds had weakened their ecological qualities and, perhaps more importantly, their relationship with everyday urban life.

The physical distance between street level and the riverbeds had gradually created a social distance, nobody used them, and because nobody used them, nobody minded what happened to them. Places that are forgotten rarely generate the public concern necessary for their protection. When the “Collective” said they wanted to give the rivers back to the city, they were talking about access before anything else.

The “Collective” therefore set out to bring these overlooked river spaces back into the everyday life of the city. Rather than beginning with permanent construction, the initiative used a temporary architectural installation, a simple scaffolding staircase that provided a crucial first connection between street level and the rivers below, allowing citizens to access the rivers.

From there, the intervention expanded. Temporary structures, cultural programming and educational activities transformed the riverbeds into spaces for public life while simultaneously increasing awareness of their historical and environmental significance. Over two years, the rivers hosted festivals combining music, cultural events, sports and educational activities. A collaborative workshop also brought together architects, urban planners and students to explore how these spaces could eventually be reconnected permanently with the city and transformed into accessible green public areas.

The growing visibility of Rivers of Sofia also attracted political attention. Public interest became a means of raising questions about water quality, accessibility, sewage infrastructure and the long-term management of Sofia’s rivers. What began as a temporary intervention therefore developed into a wider demand for institutional change, with the Municipality of Sofia committing to the longer-term restoration and revitalisation of the rivers as green public spaces. In 2024, a conference entitled “The Future of the Perlovska River – a Model for Sustainable Management of Sofia Rivers” was organised, followed by the signing of a memorandum by Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev on the sustainable management of the Perlovska River, drawing on the findings of the study. The document sets out four main priorities for the river’s future management:

  1. Improve and update the official maps and cadastral information for the Perlovska River.
  2. Identify and stop illegal wastewater discharges and other sources of pollution entering the river.
  3. Introduce modern tools and technologies to monitor water quality more effectively.
  4. Officially name previously unnamed tributaries and water bodies within Sofia Municipality.

The initiative gained international recognition in 2022, receiving a Grand Prix at the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra, demonstrating how the creative reuse of neglected urban infrastructure can simultaneously address questions of heritage, community and public space.

Most importantly, the idea did not end with one river or one city. The project has since expanded beyond Sofia, with growing interest in other rivers of Bulgaria like in the city of Gabrovo, which hosted the “Rivers of the City” Festival with a programme combining music, events and participatory workshops.

The Collective “The Rivers of the City - Gabrovo” artistic intervention in the river of the city of Gabrovo in 2022
The Collective “The Rivers of the City – Gabrovo” artistic intervention in the river of the city of Gabrovo in 2022 (Photograph: kolektiv.bg)

The project therefore illustrates an important principle of placemaking: urban transformation does not have to originate exclusively within conventional planning institutions or expert-led design processes, community engagement is key. Jane Jacobs the author of the book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” made the point decades ago that the person who walks a street every day knows things about it that no survey will pick up. Placemaking is what happens when that knowledge is put to work: small, cheap, temporary changes to a space, tried out in public, to see whether people will use it. It places in the center of the process of urban change the real voices, needs and observations of the people who live it.

The story of Rivers of Sofia therefore raises a useful question for every city: how many opportunities for transformation are already present, but remain invisible simply because nobody has yet looked at them differently?

That is the argument worth making about community engagement: it is not only a box to tick once a project is under way, it can be the thing that starts the project in the first place.

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