Kietzlabor CityLab Berlin2023-2024 | Berlin | 🇩🇪
Social engagement in the neighborhood
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CityLAB Berlin adopted UrbanistAI to develop a series of community workshops held during the summer of 2023. These workshops were designed to allow Berlin's inhabitants to actively reimagine public spaces and develop new ideas for the central streets of their neighborhoods.
For this initiative, UrbanistAI platform and interface were specifically designed for CityLAB Berlin to produce visual scenarios representing four distinct districts of Berlin, thereby facilitating localized and relevant engagement.
CityLAB Berlin’s Kiezlabor, a project supported by Technologiestiftung Berlin and Senatskanzlei, consisted of an energy self-sustainable shipping container, touring around different public spaces of Berlin to engage with the local community in educational workshops, exhibitions and networking. For this occasion a custom version of UrbanistAI was designed to allow visitors of Kiezlabor to envision the main streets of their neighborhoods.
Guests navigated a straightforward, guided platform to pick a street and experiment with innovative concepts for public space enhancement and placemaking. Leveraging instant AI-powered visualizations, they could swiftly assess varied design options, envision the prospective results of their suggestions, and choose the transformation they preferred the most.
Image credits: CityLab Berlin 2023
TAKEAWAYS
In-person civic engagement can have a greater impact in participatory planning than online-only approaches by fostering direct, meaningful interactions and building stronger community relationships. Bringing education and technology to public spaces district by district can achieve better outcomes by ensuring accessibility and promoting localized, active participation.
Berliners were empowered with the ability to develop new ideas for their streets, cultivating a sense of ownership and connection to their city's future.
By touring the city, Kiezlabor managed to reach a larger pool of people across the city, making sure more voices and cultures were represented.
Kiezlabor established new open and joyful discussions about neighborhood-specific needs, addressing unique challenges and aspirations across various districts in Berlin.