Digital urban planning for more participation
Virtual City Model in the Hessian Town of Kelsterbach
© YourVoice
Digital urban planning facilitates citizen involvement, at least in theory. Hesse’s first virtual residential district is a depiction of Mainhöhe, the area above the Main in Kelsterbach. It now provides insight into how grassroots urban planning might look in the future.
© YourVoice
The 3D interactive residential district program on the YourVoice platform aims to dismantle barriers and open easy access to planning processes: as stated in a press release, YourVoice aims to enable “digital citizen involvement on a new level”. Those who wish to participate must first sign up, after which they will have the possibility to “make their own evaluations and contribute their own ideas”.
Social urban development
Since 2014, the area has been part of the urban development promotion program known as The Social City – Investments in the District”, which has concentrated on social cohesion for the past two years. The objective is the creation of a liveable, diverse neighbourhood.
© YourVoice
Until now, the analog counterpart to the interactive city model has been the town hall, while the Mainhöhe Facebook account offers an intermediate step. The YourVoice platform makes the next move towards digital participation.
© YourVoice
Three-dimensional thinking
The app has been available since March 2022. Its three-dimensional representation will “illustrate complex planning and make development processes comprehensible”. To this end, plans for future buildings are inserted into the virtual district. Citizens can then leave their comments and vote with a rating scale. The city wants to reach more people with this “spatial communication” and motivate them to get involved in social decisions. It has clearly been effective: 700 people participated in just the first six weeks.
XXX: X
YYY: Y
ZZZ: Z
AAA: A
Gallery
These articles might also interest you
-
A 3D city model as a web application
A Digital Tour of Zurich
In 2018, Zurich introduced a digital model of the city to the internet. Now two web applications allow virtual city tours and trips through time. Moreover, they can perform many analytical functions.
-
Making-Of
Striatus − a Bridge of 3D-Printed Concrete
For the 17th Biennale of Architecture in Venice, the Block Research Group from ETH Zurich and ZHA CODE − the research department at Zaha Hadid Architects − have created a vaulted bridge of 3D-printed concrete elements.