On Thursday, 12 October 2024, at 3:30 pm, 14 participants gathered at the OHA! - Offenes Haus der AWO in Vaterstetten. Among them were local citizens as well as representatives from the municipality. 

The workshop centered around the "Flower of Proximity" innovative methodology, using a 1-4-all design. In the first phase, participants created their individual "Flowers of Proximity," identifying key locations and services they rely on to meet their daily needs. This exercise, paired with guiding questions, resulted in a variety of personalized accessibility by proximity flowers.

In the second phase, participants were divided into four groups to discuss, co-create, and collectively decide on the five most essential locations and services. A key principle was ensuring that every group member was satisfied with the final decisions. Lastly, each group presented their selections and contributed to a shared "Community Flower."

The Vaterstetten workshop served as a pilot for the project. Based on participant feedback, adjustments will be made before international partners of the COMMON_ACCESS project roll out the workshop in their respective regions. The collective results from all workshops will be analyzed, compared, and synthesized into recommendations for how commoning practices can better meet the needs of citizens.

A special thank you goes to the team at OHA! - Offenes Haus der AWO for providing the venue and refreshments, to Mayor of Vaterstetten Leonhard Spitzauer for his enthusiastic support and valuable contributions to the workshop, to Laura Knoll for her excellent coordination and collaboration, and to our local partner MVV for their support.

Find out more about the project: COMMON_ACCESS - Lehrstuhl für Siedlungsstruktur und Verkehrsplanung (tum.de) or https://www.commonaccessproject.com/ 

Photos: McCormick, 2024