Aotearoa Urbanism

: The Human-Centred Design of Participatory Placemaking through Digital Technology

Abstract

The rapid evolution of the built environment in Aotearoa, driven by industrial growth and population increase, poses a unique challenge: enabling active and meaningful public participation in city planning amidst various constraints, including enduring impacts of colonisation, a cost-of-living crisis, resource limitations, and a deficit in civic imagination. In this complex backdrop, urban planners, policymakers, and developers grapple with additional challenges such as time and budgetary constraints, political agendas, and inefficient decision-making systems. In response to these challenges, this master of design research project adopts a pragmatic research-through-design methodology from an organisational perspective. The study is anchored in a Human-Centred Design approach, unfolding across three phases: Inspiration, Ideation, and Validation. The Inspiration phase unpacks insights from recent literature, the Urbanism New Zealand 2023 conference, and semi-structured interviews with three industry experts and three community participants, which were then thematically analysed. The scope of the research areas relating to the subject are intentionally broad to enable a systems thinking approach. These findings then informed a design brief focusing on the question, “How might we design digital technologies to enhance public participation in placemaking in Aotearoa?” Guided by this brief, the Ideation phase employs various design tools in a non-linear creative process, dissecting the challenge and innovating potential solutions. The outcome is a conceptual prototype – “Fantail AR,” an engaging web and mobile application employing augmented reality, gamification, and geographical information systems to enable collaborative urban development. This prototype, presented in a pitch deck, finally undergoes validation by the six original participants, their feedback contributing to a list of recommendations. Fantail AR is envisioned as an effective, reciprocal, and playful communication channel between authorities, developers and the public, targeting local, sustainable development goals while promoting community cohesion and strategic decision-making. The findings underscore the importance of infusing local narratives, cultures, and identities into urban environments to enhance community resilience, social cohesion, uphold our bicultural partnership, foster a sense of belonging, and deepen the connection to place. Finally, the research offers actionable recommendations to enhance public participatory placemaking in Aotearoa. These include engaging the youth via school curriculum, harnessing emerging and digital technologies, revising decision-making structures, leveraging existing community groups, acknowledging the link between public health and the physical environment, and championing Māori leadership. The project thus constitutes a robust contribution to the evolving discourse on participatory placemaking while offering a promising conceptual prototype for further exploration and application.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Auckland
Supervisor	Angus Donald Campbell (Chief supervisor)