dr. O. (Özlemnur) Ataol
2026 January - 2027 December
Future Blocks: Child-Led Community Design, One Block at a Time
The Future Blocks project received funding from the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) in 2026.
Future Blocks is a rights-based, open source toolkit that transforms token “kids panels” into a repeatable cycle of co-design sprints complete with step-by-step facilitator guidelines, pictogram canvases and safeguarding checklists - enabling municipalities to include and embed children’s ideas directly into the budgets and work-plans with clear You said - We did feedback loops. To validate its adaptability, we will stage six real-world roll-outs across Estonia’s diverse contexts: (1) a border county experiencing acute youth out-migration; (2) a sparsely connected island municipality; (3) a small rural parish on Estonia’s largest island; (4) a regenerated industrial quarter in Tallinn; (5) an innovative live–work–play capital neighbourhood integrating sustainable planning and business incubation; (6) a capital-city public school serving primarily minority-language pupils. We will additionally gather national user feedback via the Estonian National Library’s 28 branches. By piloting Future Blocks in six distinct Estonian settings we ensure our rights-based, child-centred toolkit adapts effortlessly across geographies, socio-economic contexts, governance scales and cultural landscapes, proving it can be seamlessly integrated into any local decision-making cycle. Child teams advance from problem mapping to working prototypes, present at council hearings, and see their proposals adopted in real time. Urban-design researchers will publish an open micro-dataset and peer-reviewed findings, then share all materials under Creative Commons (ET/EN) for rapid pan-EU uptake. Grounded in Article 12 UNCRC, Future Blocks delivers the CERV call’s demand for systemic, inclusive participation—giving children genuine voice, agency and democratic skills while strengthening their sense of belonging.
2025 August - 2026 November
NextGenCircular: Developing Circular Skills for Spatial Planning and Design Students
The NextGenCircular project received a Comenius Program Teaching Fellow grant in 2025 by NRO.
Circular development has emerged as a transformative approach to sustainability, moving beyond traditional practices like recycling and remanufacturing. It now places a strong emphasis on developing and sharing the critical knowledge, values, and skills needed to build sustainable futures. Despite the Netherlands' position as a global leader in circularity, the 2024 Dutch Circularity Gap Report underscores an urgent need to strengthen human capital to address pressing socio-spatial challenges in housing, infrastructure, mobility, and public services. With the growing demand for sustainable spatial development and the corresponding need for green talent in spatial planning and design, it is imperative for higher education to prioritize preparing the next generation of professionals with the expertise and vision necessary to lead this vital transformation.
Applied learning is a cornerstone of Spatial Planning and Design (SPD) education, enabling students to develop robust, practice-oriented portfolios. The NextGenCircular project introduces a forward-thinking approach by combining professional-to-student mentorship with challenge-based learning. This creates a laboratory where students not only engage with the concept of circularity through leading Dutch practices but also apply their knowledge in practical, hands-on contexts. In the short term, students will gain a deeper understanding of circular development, translating theory into actionable solutions. In the long term, students will enhance their professional profiles, open doors to opportunities in the green labor market, and empower themselves to become next-generation circular leaders capable of bridging the circularity gap.
2023 September - 2024 September
CIRCLEcity: Children's Investigation of Resilient Circular Lifestyle and Environments in the City
CIRCLEcity received a grant from the Children's Rights Research Fund (SWOL), and the project commenced in September 2023, concluded in November 2024.
The CIRCLEcity project designs a collaborative action research with children (11-12 years old) living in urban areas to co-investigate their perceptions of sustainable/unsustainable consumption behaviors and their approach to utilizing circularity in their action plans targeting their unsustainable consumption behaviors toward change in favor of sustainable development responding to SDG # 11 (sustainable communities) and 12 (sustainable consumption).
2022 September - 2024 December
#CircularCityChallenge: Creating a Next Generation Participatory Contest for Young People to Integrate Circularity in School Curricula
The CircularCityChallenge project will set up a pan-European competition for students aged 14-19. Through the competition, the consortium will collect submissions providing creative and novel ideas for circular city approaches. The challenge invites young people to submit their own ideas for a sustainable future in their own environment while at the same time educating them on the topic of sustainable development. This approach will have a threefold effect: (i) in researching a competition-based approach to educating functional urban design in support of circular systems and the use of nature-based solutions and design curricula for different school types and age groups, the project will improve education in schools and education for sustainable development in particular; (ii) in providing students the possibility to submit ideas on a new approach on circularity, the project will raise awareness on sustainability; and (iii) in providing fresh ideas and approaches, cities will be enabled improve their resource use and waste management strategies, business models and smart city developments for the common good. Cities will further be enabled to build adaptable future visions and adopting a circular economy strategy.