Diagrammatic Sketches as a Means of Design Interaction

参与式城市设计工具的开发本研究涉及参与城市设计和规划的创新工具的开发。它主要侧重于方法论的发展，鼓励利益相关者积极参与城市和景观形式概念的定义。这些方法便于使用图形手势，绘制草图和物理模型，然后通过不同的扫描技术捕获，分析并带回设计概念或进一步咨询过程。他们的基本假设是，这些方法由于他们的“动手”方法与精确的数据分析相结合，可以产生更好、更明智的咨询过程。目前的研究主要集中在一种参与式过程的工具上，即在景观和城市设计的发展中使用手绘草图。虽然这属于城市参与的一个特定类别，称为草图规划，但本研究着眼于特定类型的图纸和数据分析，可以帮助这一学科更好地解决与景观和城市特征相关的问题。参与式过程中草图的使用主要基于某些类型的图纸的使用，即草图图和概念图，它们本身就适合讨论空间问题解决、土地利用位置和地理数据收集等问题。然而，景观和城市外观、风格以及更细致入微的连通性（我们称之为城市和景观特征）的问题并没有通过这些手段得到适当的解决。另一种类型的绘画，我们称之为图解草图，可以用来填补这个空白。这些通常是基于平面图的线路图，连接路径，愿望线和景观组件，如种植，人工地形或水景。它们往往比草图图更简单（例如，它们可能代表道路的中心线，而不是两边的边缘），比传统的草图/概念图更抽象（例如，线条有时可以用多种方式解释）。它们在设计实践中的应用与对性格问题的讨论更密切相关，如果使用得当，可以为参与过程带来新的视角。然而，它们的抽象程度可能会使它们在参与过程中难以被不同的用户群体采用或理解，从而对其可用性以及非专家解释的便利性提出了问题。本研究试图了解图解素描在公众参与过程中的适用性。它假设城市和景观特征的问题可以通过草图开发和进一步的圆桌讨论的结合与利益相关者进行集体讨论，然后对草图进行统计分析。这反过来应该有助于丰富规划讨论，并帮助利益相关者表达通过其他方式无法出现的关注和问题。它目前正在开发一种称为网络表征的技术，这将有助于解释图解草图，并将其结果与参与性过程中关于城市特征的讨论联系起来。本研究将对现有城市肌理进行网络表征，并在分析现有历史背景的基础上，将其结果与城市肌理特征的真实情况进行比较。同样，对不同用户群体的手绘草图进行特征研究，确定其在捕捉设计意图方面的有效性。到目前为止，已经对10岁的孩子进行了一项测试。

DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS FOR PARTICICIPATORY URBAN DESIGN This research deals with the development of innovative tools for participation in urban design and planning. It mainly focuses on the development of methodologies that encourage active engagement of stakeholders in definition of concepts of urban and landscape form. These are methods that facilitate the use of graphical gestures, drawn sketches and physical models which are then captured via different scanning techniques, analysed and brought back into to the design concepts or further consultation processes. They underlying hypothesis is that these methods due to their "hands on" approach combined with precise data analytics can produce better and more informed consultation processes. CURRENT RESEARCH ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIAGRAMMATIC SKETCHES The research is currently focusing on one type of tools for participatory processes, namely the usage of freehand sketching in the development of landscape and urban design. While this would fall into a specific category of urban participation called sketch planning, this research looks at specific types of drawings and data analytics which can help this discipline better address issues related with landscape and urban character. The use of sketches in participatory process is mostly based on the use of certain types of drawings, namely sketch maps and concept maps which are inherently suited to discuss issues of spatial problem solving, land use location and geographical data gathering. However questions of landscape and urban appearance, style and more nuanced discussions on connectivity (what we shall call urban and landscape character) are not addressed properly through these means. Another type of drawings, which we call diagrammatic sketches, can be used to fill this gap. These are typically plan based line drawings of connecting paths, desire lines and landscape components such as planting, artificial topographies or water features. They tend to be simpler than sketch maps drawings (for example they may represent centre line of roads as opposed to both edges) and more abstract than conventionally used sketch/concept maps (for example, lines can sometimes be interpreted in multiple ways). Their use in design practice is more closely related to the discussion on issues of character and can bring new perspectives to the participatory processes if adequately used. However, their level of abstraction can potentially make them hard to adopt or understand by different user groups in the participation process, posing questions on its usability as well as ease of interpretation by non-experts. This study tries to understand the applicability of diagrammatic sketching in public participatory processes. It assumes that questions of urban and landscape character can be collectively discussed with stakeholders by a combination of sketch development and further round table discussions following statistical analysis of the sketches. This in turn should help enrich planning discussion and help stakeholders express concerns and issues which do not emerge through other means. It is currently developing a technique called network characterization, which should help both interpret diagrammatic sketches and link their results to discussion on urban character during participatory processes. The study shall carry out network characterization of existing pieces of urban fabric and compare its results with ground truth of their character based on analysis of existing historical background. Equally, it shall carry out characterization studies of hand drawn sketches of different user groups and ascertain its efficiently in capturing design intent. One test has been carried out so far with 10 year old children.