Future-proof Urban Renewal from a children perspective: Digitalinteractive design support for sustainable and healthy neighbourhoods

Research Project, 2020

Cities have a big potential to implement sustainable development goals such as climate action, equality, health and well-being. On the neighbourhood level, architects, urban designers and planners, currently cannot fully make use of this potential due to lack of suitable, data-based tools. More specifically, there is a gap regarding the integration of children’s perspective into early design phases of both new and existing neighbourhoods.

The purpose of this project is to develop a digital toolkit supporting the design process of sustainable and healthy neighbourhoods from a children perspective. The planning grant will be used to set up an interdisciplinary and gender-balanced research consortium. Next to architecture, urban planning and engineering, it will include researchers of environmental psychology and medicine. A digital twin of the city will be used to provide a basis for data exchange and interaction. The toolkit will be tested with schoolchildren and practitioners using two case studies in Gothenburg.

The toolkit will allow designers to optimize their design proposals holistically from the very beginning. Exploring design proposals in a virtual 3D environment will allow children and the general public to participate in the process. As such, it will motivate participation, which finally will lead to better planning outcomes and support the transition towards healthy, child-friendly, sustainable cities.