U_CODE

Description

Although many e-participation tools have been developed to engage citizens, there is no digital tool for creative citizen participation on a large scale. The new U_CODE co-design environment enables communication and collaboration between a large number of citizens and professional experts.

The main new feature is a public project space for non-professional civic users: a highly accessible, low-threshold public interface. Citizens wishing to become actively involved in the design process have access to a "Project Play Ground" offering highly experimental design tools.

The second major new feature of U_CODE is a collaborative platform that connects the "Project Play Ground" with professional urban designers. This co-design workspace is a one-way exchange center between public users and professionals. It allows to collect project information, generate initial impulses and discuss proposals in the early phase of design.

The key catalysts for co-design and communication are moderated models (MoMs) that are exchanged and iterated between professionals and the public until a mutual understanding is found. The moderated models are derived from a cloud-based project information model (PIM) that integrates all project information, including technical data and public input. The moderated models are published in the Project Play Ground public to stimulate feedback, e.g. via social media. U_CODE will evaluate proposals semantically and emotionally, to design early detection of project resistance, and prevent the build-up of negative public sentiment.

U_CODE will enable creative professionals to tap into the creativity of the public, to follow the opinions and feelings of the public, and to draw design intelligence from them. The design and decision-making process will be informed and transformed by the impulses of "citizen experts" as a driving force.

Objectifs

Creating an environment for urban co-design. Seizing the opportunity offered by emerging technologies to produce new forms of content and user engagement, U_CODE will design and develop a new type of participatory platform that will allow urban designers, architects and developers to co-design and communicate their projects with the general public.

U_CODE is aimed at two main user groups:

Creative professionals such as urban designers, architects and project developers.
The lay public, i.e., all citizens, including non-professional stakeholders.

The overall architecture of the environment will include project spaces for professional and public users, an interface for co-design and communication between project spaces, and a data platform for integration and analysis of complex data. The environment will collect and exchange ideas and feedback from a broad audience and professional experts. It provides modeling and visualization tools to foster co-creation and understanding of design concepts, especially during the critical early phase of the project life cycle. It thus enables intuitive understanding of complex design problems and constructive feedback. For this next-generation collaborative digital environment, a co-design methodology will be created as well as validated technology, including software and human-machine interfaces, communication protocols and data management.

The specific objectives are as follows:

Design and develop a new public project space ("Project Playground") where intuitive and generative HMIs help citizens understand complex urban design issues and allow them to present creative design ideas;
Design and develop a new co-design and communication interface ("co-design space") that connects the public "project playground" with expert professional studios, such as urban designers, architects and developers, and functions as a one-way exchange of design ideas and feedback, particularly in the crucial initial phase of the design and development process;
Design and develop a central data platform ("data space") where information from current projects is pooled, integrated and analyzed. In the data space, highly heterogeneous data are brought together in comprehensive project information models (PIMs), from which moderated models (MoMs) can be derived and displayed to the respective users in their project spaces;
Provide design insights to co-designers and decision-makers through semantic analysis of design contributions produced and sentiment analysis of public reactions and opinions in social media ;
Design the APIs and communication protocols needed to ensure smooth data exchange between users and applications;
Validate the U_CODE methodology and technology in test bed environments provided by professional design firms working on real urban design projects.