Peace Circle Liperi
Spatial Democracy in Practice
Peace Circle is a completed civic public space established in 2024 in Liperi, Finland. It transforms a municipal green area into a circular civic structure organised around spatial equality. Co-designed by citizens and realised in partnership with the municipality, it embeds ecological care and shared governance directly into the built environment. The circle functions as a permanent framework for dialogue and collective stewardship.
The Place
Peace Circle was established in 2024 within a newly developed residential area in Liperi, where community identity is still emerging. Located along a pedestrian and cycling route near the town centre, it is embedded in everyday life and accessible without barriers.
The project transformed a municipal green area into a circular gathering space structured around equality. The geometry removes hierarchy — no stage, no front, no back — placing all participants in the same spatial position.
At its centre stands a tree symbolising the community, surrounded by trees dedicated through participatory dialogue to practices that sustain democratic life. Meadow areas enhance biodiversity, and the compact layout keeps the civic space physically and socially accessible.
Co-Designed With the Community
From the outset, Peace Circle was developed through an open participatory process. Residents, local associations, schools and municipal representatives co-defined the design, purpose and long-term stewardship of the space.
Between 20 and 50 volunteers took part in community work days, contributing directly to its physical realisation. The initial implementation was financed through local crowdfunding (€5,000), establishing civic ownership from the beginning.
The surrounding trees were dedicated through dialogue to practices that sustain democratic life. Rather than imposing meaning through design, the space emerged from collective decision-making.
Civic Practice in Everyday Life
Peace Circle is not a symbolic installation but an actively used civic space. In spring 2025, more than 200 local schoolchildren engaged in dialogue within the circle, linking environmental stewardship with democratic responsibility across generations.
The space is regularly used for school dialogues, community meetings and seasonal gatherings. Located within walking and cycling distance of the neighbourhood centre, it embeds democratic interaction into everyday life.
The municipality has formally integrated the space into its maintenance and community structures through a cooperation agreement, ensuring landscape care, tree watering and seasonal protection. The model is also used in local education, embedding civic practice into learning environments.
In a border-region community in Eastern Finland, where geopolitical tensions form part of the wider context, strengthening local trust and participation carries particular significance.
Digital Extension
To complement the physical circle, an immersive digital twin — a 360° seasonal representation of the site — extends the space beyond its physical boundaries. It enables residents, schools and community members to revisit and engage with the circle beyond gatherings.
The digital layer lowers participation barriers for those unable to attend in person and allows dialogue to continue across time and circumstance. Accessible in both Finnish and English, it broadens engagement while keeping the physical space as the primary site of encounter.
The digital twin does not replace the circle — it extends its democratic function by sustaining reflection, learning and civic dialogue.
Sustainable by Design
Peace Circle integrates ecological thinking into its spatial form. Meadow areas enhance biodiversity and support pollinators, while the compact circular layout minimises material use and land impact.
Located on clay soil shaped by former lake conditions, the design responds to existing ground realities. Rather than introducing extensive hard surfaces, it prioritises vegetative layers and low-impact materials, allowing the landscape to function within its natural constraints.
Ecological ground materials were introduced in partnership with the municipality, reinforcing long-term environmental responsibility. Trees and vegetation were selected for northern climate conditions, enabling the space to mature alongside the community it serves.
By combining nature-based solutions with spatial restraint, the project demonstrates how small-scale public interventions can strengthen biodiversity and reduce resource intensity.
Shared Governance Model
Peace Circle operates through a cooperative governance structure balancing civic initiative with municipal responsibility. The initiating association leads community engagement and programming, while the municipality ensures long-term maintenance, including watering and landscape care.
Local companies contribute through modest annual commitments, reinforcing shared responsibility without commercialising the space. The initial implementation was financed through local crowdfunding (€5,000), embedding civic ownership from the outset.
This distributed stewardship model creates a durable framework for democratic practice: citizens shape the space, public authorities secure its continuity, and local actors sustain its everyday care.
Because the model relies on cooperation rather than scale, it can be adapted to rural municipalities and dense urban contexts alike.
A Transferable Structure
Peace Circle is built on a clear and adaptable framework: circular spatial equality, participatory co-design and shared stewardship between citizens and municipality.
The model requires modest financial investment and relies on collective agency rather than infrastructure scale. Its core elements — non-hierarchical geometry, landscape structure rooted in local meaning, and cooperative governance — can be adapted to neighbourhoods of different sizes.
Rather than exporting a fixed design, the approach offers a transferable process through which communities shape their own civic space while embedding sustainability, inclusion and shared responsibility into the built environment. The model has already been implemented in several European contexts and is expanding internationally.
International visit exploring the model’s adaptation to Dongguan, China (Feb 2026)
Peace Circle shows that democracy is not only governed — it is built and sustained through shared space, collective care and everyday civic practice.