Design Principles for Co-Creating Inclusive and Digitally Mediated Public Spaces

Abstract

New media technologies present spatial designers with a host of new tools, both for broadening civic engagement in the design process itself, and for inserting digital devices into public spaces, expanding on the diversity of groups that these spaces can cater for, and the diversity of experiences on offer. Moreover, such technologies offer new tools for generating co-created and shared value, and consequently an increased sense of ownership of these spaces by the public - a (re)valuing of the commons. Digital devices mediate many of our daily social interactions as well as the way we interact with and navigate our cities. This chapter presents the outcomes of a four-day training school programme where the primary focus was to develop a set of key principles that would guide public space designers in the design of inclusive and co-created public spaces. The design principles produced to inform the general structure of this report, giving rise to six broad themes of analysis: participation, quality, diversity, accessibility, flexibility, and hackability. Adopting these principles in the design of public spaces is intended to harness the capabilities of digital technologies to provide diverse experiences and broad usability.