Promoting Citizen Engagement in Sustainable Planning Through Installation Design and Digital Gamification

Abstract

This paper aims to explore tools and methodologies to promote citizen engagement in sustainable city planning through the design of interactive experiences. The study features documentation of the ‘Shape your City’ project, co-designed and developed by the authors along with collaborators, and piloted as part of Dubai Design Week 2021. The project is presented as a case study to investigate the use of installation design and digital gamification as mediums to enable citizen participation in urban planning. Starting with a brief overview of the context of Dubai and the Dubai Design Week Architectural Exhibition (1), the paper presents the co-curation process of the installation and expands to present the exhibition design, visual identity and wayfinding systems (2), followed by the web-app design and development, to end with an analysis of the findings of this pilot edition and recommendations for a long term implementation of the project (3).