Overview
City planning processes affect various stakeholders from different areas (city/state, industry, civil society). It is crucial to actively involve these parties in planning and discussions by considering their different viewpoints. Today, this mainly is done by using plans, models/miniatures and texts. However, this makes it rather inaccessible for non-experts. This creates additional friction and makes communication on equal levels difficult if not impossible, something especially relevant for controversial projects like the "Spange Nord" in Lucerne.
As part of this project we research how digital transformation can make these processes more vivid and interactive to foster the dialogue between the stakeholders. We are especially considering the role that augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) can play as these technologies have their strengths especially in regards to engaging visualizations.
Currently, AR and VR are mainly used in small spaces with only very few users at the same time. However, for a true dialogue in city planning processes, much larger groups need to interact with each other in the same physical space. Here, we are working together with the Laboratorium Luzern in order to establish a 300sqm multiuser AR/VR environment for exactly this purpose. Stakeholders will then be able to discuss specific aspects of a planned project, their repercussions and explore different scenarios and propose solutions.
