Participatory planning powered by augmented reality

Arup’s augmented reality (AR) tool YARD enables a shared, accessible language for co-designing with the community. By involving the community in an interactive and visual way in visioning and early design, we take steps towards democratising urban planning.

YARD’s aim is to support a co-design process that helps communities communicate their intentions to designers and planners most effectively.​ Equally, the outputs serve as a strong visual tool, providing a feel for the potential future space for stakeholders and decision makers.

With YARD, we can work with communities to design better public space interventions.

Below are a few examples of how we have been using YARD recently:

How might temporary interventions create places for people and encourage community wellbeing?

How might we encourage sustainable travel and active lifestyles by reallocating car parking for cycle parking?

How might a child-friendly approach to urban planning create more inclusive cities?

If you are interested in using YARD on your public engagement or design project, contact ADESoftware@arup.com.

Read more about how we tested YARD in vulnerable urban contexts (VUCs).

Meet Arup’s UK software team, and read more about our work here.