participatory planning

A city is a wonderfully complex environment with a diverse set of challenges. With topics ranging from transportation to energy and from education to the environment, there is a need for a generation of creative problem solvers. By involving young citizens early on, we can benefit from their fresh perspective. We furthermore have a chance of triggering their long-lasting engagement and cooperation for the city of tomorrow. The first edition of NxtCity will be held in Amsterdam at the end of August.

Research: To materialize Smart Projects in the city, involving residents is a crucial development, as we need to work together to build a Smarter City. Residents are often oblivious to the wide range of technological measures that can be undertaken to save both costs and environment; as well as the positive impact that they can exert in their neighbourhood. The game's purpose: The purpose of the game is to show residents the Smart Solutions already in existence, and to increase the number of bottom-up initiatives.

Forum Virium Helsinki has been exploring how digital services can open up the city, its history and even the city construction plans for the citizens. In fall 2014, pilots were  run to test how augmented reality can be utilized in the urban planning of an old neighbourhood as well as in wayfinding services for the residents and tourists.

TransformCity (ZO!City) has collaborated with ModelMe 3D (Burton Hamfelt) to develop a demo for an online application called ‘Amstel 3D Pilot’. Parties both in and outside of the region can use the application to post initiatives for development into a 3D model of Amstel 3 area. For example: a beach volleyball tournament, parking space sharing or the redevelopment of an office building. This ICT tool will stimulate the development of such bottom-up initiatives and help create a strong community around them.

Mi Medellín uses platforms which implements new mechanisms to encourage citizens participation through open innovation methodologies.

Stickyworld is a stakeholder engagement platform enabling presentation and detailed discussion of maps, plans, videos and 360 virtual tours. People stick digital ‘post-it notes’ directly on slides to leave comments. This enables feedback throughout the whole project lifecycle for any building or neighbourhood, and has been used across London in Bloomsbury, Kentish Town and Haringey for community engagement, and was also used, for example by The Design Museum, who published a 360° virtual tour of their new museum to stick comments on.

Team London Bridge (TLB), with support from Southwark Council, is developing an Action Plan to champion local aspirations and concerns. Selected for its simplicity, Commonplace designed and delivered a specific iteration of its web-based platform for public engagement. This allows people to visit the website and place a marker on the map to show their location of interest. The resultant interactions help forge suggestions and strategies for the Action Plan, with consultation data available to TLB in real time.

Forum Virium Helsinki is an innovation unit within the Helsinki City organization. It develops new digital services in cooperation with companies, other City of Helsinki units and residents. Our objective is to build better city services, create new business opportunities as well as open up new contacts for international markets. Forum Virium Helsinki’s development projects drive the creation of digital city services. From the very start, ideas under development are tested as part of users’ everyday lives. Another goal is to create new business opportunities for companies.

The Amsterdam district of Zuidoost (Southeast) is 22 km2 and is home to approximately 80,000 residents. Zuidoost is a remarkably green neighbourhood with the massive lake Gaasperplas and its surrounding forest as its centrepiece. There are also many other parks, sport parks, private garden allotments and a golf course. The urban core is centred on the Ajax ArenA football stadium, Amsterdam Poort and the newly-built Bijlmer train station which together has developed into a major shopping and entertainment zone complete with cinemas and concert halls.

The district of Nieuw-West is a solid demographical representation of Amsterdam and an area with high energy consumption. Notably, however, the area is home to the first district-level Smart Grid in the Netherlands. Amsterdam Smart City partner Liander has invested significantly in this technology in recent years. The Smart Grid in Nieuw-West serves as the ideal backbone to realise new renewable energy sources, with decentralised energy generation taking the lead role.