Gaming, urban planning and transportation design process

Abstract

In today’s urban planning, two perspectives dominate the discourse: a technical-rational perspective and a communicative rational perspective. Bridging the dichotomy between the two perspectives and situating new planning support methods within the context of complexity theories leads to new structures for planning support systems. The implications of the inherent complex nature of planning when bridging these perspectives should be taken into account for new planning processes and support systems. The development of such methods requires an iterative cycle between methodological and technological aspects of tool development. The chapter presents a technical framework that enables the development of methods integrating both perspectives. The framework derives its requirements from the integration of the two perspectives, and is evaluated in the context of two design case studies in the cities of Stockholm and Paris. The development of the framework and method has implications for the design of tools in urban planning. The tools need to reflect the open nature of the complex systems they represent and operate in. Such methods also expand the boundaries of the design space, allowing for previously unknown configurations.