Customised Collaborative Urban Design A Collective User-based Urban Information System through Gaming

Abstract

As we step into a new data-based information age, it is important to get citizens involved in the whole design process. Our research tries to build up a user-based urban information system by collecting the data of neighborhood land use preference from all the residents through gaming. The result of each individual decision will be displayed in real time using Augmented Reality technology, while the collective decision dataset will be stored, analyzed and learnt by computer, forming an optimal layout that meets the highest demand of the community. A pre-experiment has been conducted in a. an abstract virtual site and b. an existing site by collecting opinions from 122 participants, which shows that the system works well as a new method for collaborative design. This system has the potential to be applied both in realistic planning processes, as a negotiation toolkit, and in virtual urban forming, in the case of computer games or space colonization.