Democratizing the Design and Planning of the Built Environment Through Participation in Digital Age

Abstract

Contemporary approaches and attitudes toward participation and digital participation are drawn from articles, legislation, and guidelines. However, it was observed that there is a lack of material covering critique of the subject. This includes past digital participation experiences in the city of Hamburg and other European cities, debates, and presentations, as well as conversations with professionals who work in connection to digital participation. Additionally, fields outside of architecture were also considered, looking at texts by theorists in sociology, political theory, architecture, and urbanism. The aim is to go beyond architectural discourse through the lens of an architect to provide a critical point of view on digital participation. Through this, it is intended to offer new perspectives and contribute to better digital participatory design.

In this paper, digital participation and participation in the built environment were considered. The sector of design is public projects, both publicly and privately funded. From the theoretical view, it is planned to start with explaining why the democratic approach is important and see participation as the backbone of democracy. Then, participation is considered as a design and planning tool, and by having a critical view of it, the threats and dangers of participation are discussed, especially in the digital age. In the next step, it is observed in which areas the digital format of participation could provide possible solutions and also in which areas they face the same hindrances. The context for the topic of digital participation is mostly happening at the urban level. The focus of these projects is on a wider scale, and mostly they are pilot projects to understand the way people communicate with these tools. The participation domain may stretch widely across different layers of a project, from design to construction. The primary motive for the involvement of people is the strong belief of the architects that with participation, we achieve higher quality design.

In the end, after a comparison of different projects with the approach of participation and expert interviews, a set of guidelines for participation with the help of digital tools is concluded.