Digital Engagement for Heritage-led Urban Regeneration

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This project will demonstrate the potential for heritage-led urban regeneration, using digital technologies, which has broad-ranging implications for architectural planning in a wide variety of contexts. The research project brings together academic researchers in Archaeology, Architecture and Computer Science from the University of Sheffield, an organisation from the city's creative industry sector (Human Studio Limited design agency), and a community heritage group (Friends of Sheffield Castle). It is intended to demonstrate the capacity of immersive technologies to harness the power of cultural heritage, community engagement and the transformative potential of the creative industries to inform urban regeneration strategies and drive economic growth. The project will focus on a Sheffield case-study - the Castlegate district - long ear-marked for regeneration, and this will be used to test the potential of immersive technologies to enable regeneration. Digital technologies will be used to generate ideas for development, drawing on the heritage of the site. This is intended to engage the public with their heritage and empower community groups to work with urban planners and local government to demand imaginative regeneration. This will help to ensure its successful integration into urban living, which will increase the likelihood of the economic sustainability of regeneration initiatives. Developments sympathetic to the local heritage help to mitigate against public disengagement from their communities and ensure the economic viability of the development. How to engage the public is a huge challenge. This project will prototype the use of digital technologies to present models of the past, present and future of a site identified for regeneration and show how this can be used to generate pubic interest in the regeneration. A 3D model of Sheffield's medieval castle will be produced, drawing on current research by the Department of Archaeology, along with a version of a 3D model of the Castlegate site as it currently appears. A third element of the model would be fully developed at a later stage, informed by architectural plans for development, but in this prototype will involve the incorporation of architectural designs for the Castlegate site created recently as part of a recent student project led by the University of Sheffield's School of Architecture, and run in collaboration with the Friends of Sheffield Castle.The models will be subject to user testing by the local community to explore its value in informing plans for regeneration. These activities will foster collaborative working between a range of stakeholders interested in the future development and prosperity of the city.