Incubators of Public Spaces

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Across Europe, urban areas are growing and regenerating themselves according to a combination of individual self-interest and strategic planning. These are well-intentioned but the results are unpredictable. The multiplication of individually satisfactory developments and interventions may still be collectively sub-optimal, as seen in the case of urban sprawl, which is a potent spatial expression of modern society. In this age of complexity, participatory planning has been discussed in theory but only partly realised in practice, as it can lack the practical tools to harness the full potential of distributed decision-making. People are seen as being actively engaged in systems as participants, and as a consequence can contribute their considerable knowledge and expertise to systems of placemaking.Incubators address ways to harness the new technological possibilities and integrate them within multi-level planning systems to assist distributed decision-making in the self-organisation of places. The Project advances these challenges by linking a unique urban co-creative software, to e-participatory engagement applications and crowdfunding tools, involving co-creation in the making of public places by and for people. In this way, public spaces are transformed from empty spaces into a real context for social interaction, and would then become defined not only by the architecture that contains them, but also by the actions of the people that inhabit them.The Incubators of Public Places provide the means to reconnect people with places and placemaking. What makes a place is the integration of spatial forms, built and open, that favours the interactions of people as they inhabit those spaces. In an Incubator, you can go online or join a public meeting, to shape easily your own scenario for the place, with clear and simple 3D models of spaces - as you would expect to be: flying through and walking around, exploring and making changes. Then, crowdfund the scenario, to provide your support, revamping the city as enjoyably as buying a book online.The project will bring together innovative design software, communication software and software for facilitating 'crowdsourcing' and 'crowdfunding'- allowing citizens to be involved in the design of their public spaces interactively. The project is an exercise in applied research and allows 'live' experimentation and testing, with outcomes that can influence the design of public spaces in the cities involved. The project will also include a critical interpretation of the on-site applications, with implications for advancing social science and urban theory as well as application for future design and planning.