There is a moment, just before an event begins, when the space fills with something that is not easily captured. Glances, whispers, familiar voices, children looking for their classmates, teachers standing a little further back, members of the community recognizing one another. And there, within this meeting of the city, you realize that you are participating in a project that has already taken root in the relationships, the memories, and the everyday life of people.
HeritACT is a European project within the framework of Horizon Europe, which tests in practice participatory methods for the activation of cultural heritage.
On 29–31 January 2026, at the final events of the European project HeritACT, the participants in the project presented its results and, above all, reflected on a journey that was tested in practice -within the everyday fabric of the city.
Among the most powerful moments, the awarding of the city’s pupils for their participation stood out: a symbolic recognition that the future of a city is designed together with the new generation, and not for it.
For MENTOR, which had the responsibility for community activation in Eleusis within the framework of the project, as well as the responsibility for the concluding events of 29–31 January, HeritACT was tangible proof that the values of the New European Bauhaus -sustainability, inclusion, aesthetics- can go beyond the level of declarations and, when translated into processes that belong to the community, function as real, effective tools.
Eleusis experienced a major culmination in recent years. But every city knows that the real test is not the “celebration.” It is the next day: when you have to keep the energy, make use of it, turn it into measurable sustainability.
This is how HeritACT was positioned: as a project of substance within the framework of Horizon Europe. For us, the critical question was simple: how do you connect a complex research project with the everyday life of residents? How does heritage become lived experience instead of scenery?
In the project, MENTOR’s role was twofold:
Our methodology started from the need to first listen to the city and its people. From the choice not to look only at the buildings, but to listen to what is inscribed upon them: stories, memories, disagreements, needs.
The first step was to understand “who is who” -to map not only institutions, but also the dynamics in the city, the informal networks, and the relationships of trust.
We carried out more than 33 in-depth interviews, organized 34+ thematic walks with adults and pupils connected to the city’s industrial heritage, and created space for both the stories of the workers and today’s anxieties to be heard: about waste, access, difficult living conditions, environmental pollution.
In this journey, something unexpected happened: heritage stopped being “distant.” It became personal. We strengthened this feeling by running a multi-month crowdsourcing campaign: people brought materials from drawers and photo albums, we digitized them, and the city began to see itself through its own documents.
One of the main actions of this specific phase of the project was participatory mapping with the city’s residents, who worked on printed maps to mark cultural heritage spaces, landmarks, and areas of interest, capturing with images their relationship with Eleusis’s cultural landscape. Through this collective process, they shared memories, identified areas that need attention, and envisioned future design interventions. The activity highlighted priorities for revitalization and for stronger connections between cultural heritage spaces.
The second phase was the one that shifted the center of gravity: when we asked “how do you envision your city?” and gave the floor to the children.
14 schools and more than 1600+ pupils were mobilized. With the decisive contribution of their teachers, we developed two complementary paths:
At the same time, theatre workshops were held with the local primary schools, designed for pupils of the 5th and 6th grades, which invited the children to explore Eleusis’s industrial heritage through embodied, creative practice. Drawing on real workers’ testimonies, the pupils created short theatrical scenes, inspired by places such as the IRIS factory, the Old Oil Mill, and Cine Elefsis. The workshops were completed with reflection and with the creation of collective works of art that captured the children’s memories, emotions, and visions for a more inclusive and sustainable future for the city.
Through this process, the children:
Beyond the thematic walks, the theatre workshops, and the familiarization with new digital tools, there was a quieter gain: many children found reasons to be proud of their place and to claim a sustainable tomorrow, even if they are growing up in a city that has been brutally abused by decades of industrial activity.
In the third phase, participation had to move from discussion into the field. The challenge was for different generations and people with different starting points to come close: children, professionals, cultural associations, local initiatives.
Within this framework, our collaboration with the Open Care Centres for Older People (KAPI) proved revealing. In the co-design of the urban equipment/furniture, older people gave directions that would hardly have emerged in a design office somewhere else in Europe: proper shading, a sense of safety, materials resistant to the sea, design approaches that support use by the whole family, forms that honor the city’s proximity to the water.
At the same time, a series of educational activities was carried out with the city’s primary schools and lower secondary schools. Specifically, through workshops in stop motion animation, model-making, and visual arts, the pupils acquired practical and creative skills, and at the same time deepened their relationship with the history, identity, and public space of Eleusis.
In stop-motion, they learned the basic principles of frame-by-frame moving image and created small group films/compositions from historical photographs and multilayered collages, producing material that became inspiration for the projection mapping installation.
In the visual arts workshops, they observed and interpreted the industrial and historical buildings through drawing and color, transforming sketches and visual stimuli into completed works that capture their own, unique perspective on Eleusis.
In the model-making workshops, the lower secondary school pupils understood how design responds to real needs of public space, experimented with movable/articulated structures, tensegrity constructions, and the reuse of materials, and developed small-scale models in which they proposed design ideas for the architectural solutions that were shaped within the framework of the project.
At the same time, the participatory workshops for shaping the project’s digital solutions, the virtual exhibition, the augmented reality application, and the projection mapping installation, activated the local community through open calls, and highlighted the Eleusis Photographic Club. The club’s important contribution strengthened and fed the creation of the short film that was screened in the projection mapping installation.
Thus, the intergenerational dialogue for the shaping of the project’s architectural and digital solutions became for us the clearest image of the “bottom-up” logic: of a community that respects its past, while at the same time co-creates solutions for the future.