We selected three projects out of all the great submissions to the open call. During the three days in Mistelbach, the participants will present their respective projects, we will have input lectures, hold a workshop with young people from Mistelbach, and work together on an idea for youth spaces in Mistelbach.

The project develops innovative approaches to creating meaningful meeting places for young people in Mistelbach, Lower Austria. The initiative focuses on designing spaces that encourage social participation and self-organisation while providing genuine leisure opportunities to help young people flourish in rural communities.

The project centers on co-designing sheltered spaces that protect from weather while fostering independence and social interaction among youth. A key priority is developing thoughtful, low-cost solutions that other communities can realistically adopt and adapt to their own contexts.

All designs and findings will be shared as open-source resources, with particular emphasis on solutions that can grow and evolve to meet different needs and contexts. This approach ensures the project’s outcomes extend beyond Mistelbach, contributing to broader conversations about youth development in rural areas and inspiring similar initiatives in communities elsewhere.

The project aims to create both immediate impact in Mistelbach and lasting value through replicable, adaptable models for rural youth spaces.

This project utilises the project space format.

Project Space is a participatory planning workshop, with local and international actors and planers. On a specific site they come together to exchange ideas and work on a joint vision for a site. The workshop itself is open to public, has along the duration public events which invite to think out of the box and get in touch with related people. All results are presented to the public and made available on the wonderland digital platform.

Project Space starts whenever possible with an international idea competition where young teams from all over Europe are invited to suggest their ideas to improve an urban space and the selected teams are invited to test these ideas in the proposed city. The aim is to exchange knowledge and experience and profit from the international expertise in a unique local setting. Project Space has been held in various European cities with different focuses.