Placemaking Immersive
Stipo and Orb Amsterdam are exploring how to turn physical participation tools for urban development into a digital, immersive application. Using virtual and mixed reality, they're investigating how citizens, policymakers and developers can gain better insight into the coherence and impact of spatial planning decisions. The envisioned IX solution makes participation more accessible and allows different stakeholders to give feedback from their own perspective and engage in co-creation. This helps improve decision-making, prevent unwanted side effects and build broader public support for complex urban challenges — think housing, sustainability and accessibility.
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De Sensorische Stad
The Sensory City is an immersive toolkit aimed at young people aged 12 to 16. Through IX, AR, VR, sensors and a digital twin, young people playfully engage with urban challenges around biodiversity, climate adaptation and quality of life. At a hybrid play location combining virtual and real urban nature, young people experience the value and role of nature in the city. They also discover how their choices affect the quality of their surroundings. The toolkit is scalable, suitable for educational use, and gives policymakers insight into young people's perspectives.
Urban Remix
Urban Remix: AI-driven citizen participation through visual storytelling Urban Remix is an AI-powered platform that helps residents visually communicate their ideas for their own neighbourhood. Through a chatbot, map interface, and image and animation tools, citizen participation becomes more accessible, more persuasive and more visually engaging. The feasibility study examines the technical, societal and economic conditions needed for successful implementation, building a bridge between residents and policymakers. It also gives students the chance to work on a pressing societal issue in which AI, IX and inclusion take centre stage.
SimCityScope
SimCityScope: virtual experience and coordination of urban disruption and construction phasing SimCityScope is an interactive process, including a tool, that lets residents, business owners and policymakers experience building projects and other neighbourhood changes virtually before they happen. Through VR, AR or a screen, you see not just the end result but also the planning, temporary closures and possible disruption. This creates more understanding, engagement and better collaboration before construction begins. The project helps municipalities and other parties make better decisions on urban development together with residents.
GrondGids
GrondGids is an interactive tool developed by Studio Metaform and Bright that playfully connects residents with what lies beneath their neighbourhood. Climate change, the energy transition and grid congestion are putting growing pressure on (underground) public space. GrondGids makes underground systems such as energy, water, data and green infrastructure visible and easy to understand. It shows how choices made within households are linked to developments in public space. GrondGids supports an integrated approach that helps people make informed decisions, understand their living environment, and work together towards sustainable development.
Urban Prototype Station
Urban Prototype Station: Through Our Eyes Urban Prototype Station: Through Our Eyes is a mixed reality platform that reduces the negative effects of urban development by combining 3D city models, storytelling through volumetric video of local residents, and open data. The platform visualises the impact of construction projects at 3 functional scale levels: • bird's-eye view (1:500) for tabletop project discussions; • neighbourhood scale (1:50) for Madurodam-style area visualisation; • street level (1:1) for real-size viewing in the actual environment. It brings personal stories, such as residents' experiences of nuisance, directly into the design process through lifelike holograms. The platform provides a communication channel between decision-makers and residents, allowing plans to be visualised, residents to give direct feedback, and alternative implementation scenarios to be simulated in order to minimise nuisance.
PerspectiveXR
PerspectiveXR is developing a new approach to citizen participation in urban development. Through an immersive XR experience, residents literally step into each other's perspectives on building plans in their neighbourhood. This reduces conflict and polarisation around new developments. The project builds on earlier successful research in Sweden, adapted to the Dutch context. Over 6 months, Future of Now will build a working prototype and test it with municipalities and residents. The goal is to make participation more accessible and effective, so that urban development can happen faster and with less resistance.