CITY COL[lab]

We are CITY COL[lab], a non-profit social enterprise that collaborates with governmental planning bodies for long-term public space planning of an extensive neighbourhood. We advocate for a higher level of citizen participation and public accessibility in the consultation process of public space design and planning by using video game as a medium for open-source imagination and public consultation.

Our Proposition

The problems we see in current public space-making are two-fold: under the rigid conventional framework of public space design and consultation, there is often low engagement and late participation of public in the design process; at the same time there is limited agency of the people to contribute their design ideas due to the high threshold for architectural competitions. This often results in public discontent in the final built outcome.

We aim to challenge this conventional competition and consultation process by expanding the scope of public involvement in both design and consultation stages. We see values yet to be harvested in open-source / collective intelligence and the need for opening up of profession to real space users. Under our proposed practice model, opinions from real users of the space and the neighbourhood can be collected and incorporated into design in earlier stages.

We believe that architects should work for the common good in public place-making, and should have the agency in bridging the gap between public and local authorities in public space making process with our professional knowledge. By establishing long-term collaborations with specific government planning bodies, we can achieve holistic design neighbourhood as a whole, at the same time ensuring a more secured business model founded on deeper trust through constant collaborations and communications.

How we work

Video games, with its long history of evolution and rich variety in illustration styles, are much more immerse and direct when compared to conventional presentation and consultation methods. We see opportunities in using this long-existed tool with re-appropriated and expanded value in different stages of public project design processes.

Our model focuses primarily on extending public involvement from the brief development, conceptual design to the developed design stages (Stages 1 to 3 in the RIBA Plan of Work 2013) that are conventionally confined as the scope of work of architects and planners only. Using our video game as a design and communication tool, residents in the neighbourhood can input their ideas in designing the elements that compose the tool-kit for formulating the preliminary design, follow the weekly feedback from architects on the game, and reflect on the developed design proposals in the consultation stage.

With our in-house game-engineers and data analysts working in close collaboration with architects, our practice structure will foster timely responses to public input via the game and facilitates weekly design update within the brief development, conceptual design and design proposal consultation stages.

While we explore new opportunities we are also cautious with the potential issues brought about by this new model of working in our profession. We are working to address the concerns over the common good architects work for, partners we collaborate with, our tactics in confronting conventional consultation issues, potentials and ethics in the manipulation of collective intelligence, benefits and downsides explained in history of video games, and how the power of our design is expressed through branding and image. Hear what our team has to say about these concerns:

Wing Ki Woo — Architect for Common Good: a non-profit model for public place-making

Peijing Lu — Future collaborative design model for non-profit social organisations

Lydia Chang — Video Games: Tactics in confronting conventional Consultation Processes

Leroy Yuen — Collective Intelligence for Public Space Design and its Licensing

Witinan Watanasap — History of Video Games and CITY COL[lab] Interface

Junqing Hou — Design is Power: Video games as a medium to challenge the conventional public space design and consultation

Larry Chan — Cities Skylines: Co-existences of Co-designs