The Green Wisdom Workshops brought together urban designers, students, community actors and senior citizens in Romania, Serbia and the Netherlands to rethink neglected public spaces as inclusive, green places where older people feel welcome, visible and active. In each country, the workshop combined design work with direct dialogue with the elderly, so that their everyday experience of parks and public areas shaped the proposed solutions. The results feed into the URBAN SOUL policy briefings and local NEB Labs.

In Serbia, the Green Wisdom Workshop was implemented by Helixconnect Balkans in cooperation with the Technical School "Drvo Art" in Belgrade as the DrvoArt Inclusive Urban Space Design Competition. Students of the 3rd and 4th grade were invited to develop a conceptual redesign of Topčider Park as a public space that supports elderly citizens while remaining attractive to all generations, with particular attention to accessibility, safety, calm zones, seating, shade and green elements.

A key part of the process was a focus group with senior citizens held in a public park in Belgrade, where older residents shared their daily habits, challenges and preferences in using green spaces. These insights were brought back into guided reflection sessions with students and educators, helping the young designers confront their assumptions and adopt a more empathetic, user-centred approach.

The competition ran from 17 November to 31 December 2025. Submissions, in AutoCAD or hand-drawn form with short explanatory texts, were evaluated by a jury from Helixconnect Balkans against criteria of creativity, social relevance, sustainability, feasibility and clarity. Two winning designs were selected, by Arijana Durmić and Teodora Gagić.

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