Extract

We seek a framework for engaging people in urban design decision-making process by employing virtual tools. We adopt our previously developed parametric tools for design communication as a bridging method between conventional and participatory urban design approaches. We hypothesise that a virtual participatory urban design platform can provide more design associated information for laypeople to participate in design decision-making. The conventional urban design approaches investigate urban form as purely through the lens of urban professionals. In participatory urban design approaches the design decisions remain as general assumptions because of lack of enough associated information. Therefore, we have developed a methodology to produce urban forms by taking advantages of computational tools to engage stakeholders in complex urban design decision-making processes. This paper focuses on designing the charrette tools. We propose a mixed method of virtual and actual to orient people in the design discussion. We investigate our tools for Karori, a neighbourhood in New Zealand. We critically conclude the paper with an overview of our virtual design communication tools which is destined to engage people in a later stage.

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