How Augmented Reality Can Make Street Design More Collaborative
AR offers an interactive, visual way for members of the public to share design ideas with planners and designers.
Last summer, NYC rolled out the Open Streets program as a rapid response effort to create more space for public life and social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, neighborhoods throughout NYC are considering how these new social spaces might become a permanent part of neighborhood life, asking:
How might we imagine future uses of our streets to support community activity?
Arup is working with the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC) and the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) on Envision Vanderbilt, a public engagement project to develop a roadmap for the future use of Vanderbilt Ave in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. We hosted two events on Vanderbilt during Open Streets, allowing community members to share their experiences from the past year, explore future directions for the design of the street, and participate in interactive street design activities.
We were excited to use YARD, Arup’s public space visioning tool powered by Augmented Reality (AR). YARD enables users to imagine freely in 3D by dragging and dropping virtual objects into the real environment around them.
We included a range of objects that could reshape Vanderbilt in the future — trees and plantings, street seating, spaces for performance and outdoor play, transportation infrastructure, and more.
Watch the video below to see YARD in action on Vanderbilt Ave:
