Hupmobile project partner city workshops
Hupmobile project is all about stakeholder engagement in developing urban plans and policies. Therefore, we have conducted two workshops with project partner cities, where we discussed current stakeholders’ engagement practices and the strategies to enhance them. Due to the pandemic the workshops happened online. The video recordings of the presentations and presentation slides are available below.
First partner workshop 27.10.2021
The first partner workshop took place on 27.10.2021 and focused on Participatory Tool-KIT and innovative methods for stakeholders’ engagement.
Improving stakeholders’ processes
The workshop began with the introduction of Participatory Tool-KIT by Viktorija Prilenska. The Tool-KIT proposes five easy steps for improving stakeholders’ processes and creating Public Participation Plan (PPP). The Tool-KIT is targeted at the employees of local government, and specifically, the employees of urban planning departments, who are responsible for drawing detailed and master plans, as well as urban development strategies.
Mapping everyday life in Espoo. Building usable place-based knowledge for planning
Johanna Palomäki shared Espoo experience of collecting citizens’ contributions through Public Participation GIS (PPGIS). PPGIS is a map-based questionnaire, which sources experiential information from citizens about certain places. The experiential information typically includes common routes through the city, places of interest, or spatial qualities of a place. Bases on the collected information an artist created collages with the visions of future Espoo.
AvaLinn co-creation applications
Anna Semjonova told about Ava Linn and AvaLinn AR for better planning decisions in Tallinn. Ava Linn and Ava Linn AR are smartphone applications for informing citizens about forthcoming urban plans and for sourcing citizens’ opinions about these plans and other relevant ideas. Ava Linn AR (AR stands for Augmented Reality) was tested in the pilot project entitled Pollinator Highway, and enabled users to scan markers on the walls of buildings located in the area. The latter triggered location specific 3D visualisations, which were superimposed on the image of an outdoor space on the smartphone screen.
Cultural planning as a method for urban social innovation - UrbCulturalPlanning. Minecraft gaming activity
Jānis Ušča showed how to engage youth in co-creating digital model of Riga in Minecraft for Education. Minecraft proved to be a powerful tool for exploring cultural heritage and strengthening the sense of identity and belonging among school pupils. The key value of the Minecraft activity was in the mix between the real and the imagined realms, where pupils enhanced their knowledge of the physical world though playing in the digital environment.
Second partner workshop 17.11.2021
The second partner workshop took place three weeks later after the first workshop, on 17.11.2021, and focused on discussing current participatory strategies of each partner city. Cities of Riga, Tallinn, Turku and Hamburg fulfilled a small “homework assignment” evaluating the existing national planning frameworks, elaborating on the methods for stakeholder engagement and discussing some planning cases, where the public was actively involved. Additionally, the representatives of the local government reflected upon the strengths and weaknesses of current participatory strategies, and discussed how Participatory Tool-KIT could help them in enhancing existing practices.
