Collaborative design’ sounds like something that should have a fairly straightforward

definition. Yet when you type it into Google (other search engines are available), you
will find countless definitions amid almost half a billion results. For most of these, the
context will mostly be in relation to human computer interaction and the design of
digital products and experiences.

What doesn’t come to the forefront is collaborative design in terms of the built
environment. When you do add ‘built environment’ to your search, you will also find
many definitions – nowhere near as many and not agreed.

I was reminded of this when I was asked to give a presentation at the Urban Design
London Summer School symposium (wearing my Association of Collaborative
Design hat). The event looked at urban design through multiple lenses and featured
a programme of excellent speakers.

While there is no single interpretation of ‘collaborative design’ for the built

environment, there are many commonalities in the descriptions and explanations –
all of which point to the use of a broad range of methods and techniques to engage
communities, including citizen participants, in a project’s design and decision-making
process. So, fundamentally, place-based collaborative design is a process that
relates to community engagement. 

With this in mind, I wanted to explore some of those core commonalities in greater
depth and how digital tools and technologies are supporting the collaborative design
process and community engagement.

Collaborative design is…

Designing with, not for, people

To design ‘with’ people means to take an intersectional approach which values the
lived experience and a diversity of perspectives. This is especially important when
designing for the built environment as people have different ways of knowing and
navigating places, and different experiences and expectations.

East Quay in Somerset is a manifestation of the brilliant things that can happen
when you design ‘with’ people. The new arts centre development is the latest project
from the Onion Collective, which is a local social enterprise working to tackle social,
cultural and environmental injustice in the area.

The Onion Collective kickstarted the project by asking locals ‘What does Watchet
need for a stronger future?’, instantly empowering the community to make the
decisions about what developments should take place.
In addition to East Quay, locals chose to have a Visitor Centre built and the Boat
Museum restored. The project is now developing a mapping tool with a gaming
company and has a pilot facility growing mushrooms. Very cool indeed.

Balancing relationships between practitioners and communities

When it comes to knowing an area, nobody knows better than the local communities
themselves. So it should be a no-brainer that engagement and communication with
these key stakeholders are incorporated as fundamental aspects of the collaborative
design process.

Edinburgh Living Lab’s Future of the High Street is another strong model of
collaborative design, with this innovative project combining citizen engagement and
co-design with rapid prototyping, urban data and research to reimagine two Scottish
high streets.

The project used various online and in-person methods to engage local residents
and businesses in order to better understand key high street challenges and
opportunities in Gorgie-Dalry and Dalkeith, which led to the development of two
ideas to pilot on each site.

The collaborative relationship between practitioners and communities continued into

the evaluation process too, with the project’s indicators of success including: open
learning, local participation, professional exchange, meaningful contribution and
critical reflection.

Expansive

To be expansive in the context of co-design means to empower everyone to play a

part in the design and planning process from the ground up, which is exactly
what Nottingham’s Co-PLACE has sought to do.

Co-PLACE is an example of what a truly democratic planning system looks like,

bringing together communities, authorities and industry to identify barriers to
communication, increase mutual understanding across sectors and offer a neutral,
shared platform where stakeholders can find common ground.

Nottingham City Council has now launched a Community Engagement guide, in line
with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and National Planning Policy
Framework, which outlines key elements of the process, criteria and appraisals.

Context dependent
While there is no right way to do collaborative design, there are certainly wrong ways
to do it. First and foremost, it is absolutely key for all elements of a place to be taken
into account; that means thinking about all of the varying social, physical,
environmental and economic factors that make a place, and making sure these are
considered at all stages.

Community engagement has been firmly embedded into various planning and
development policies over the years, too. Many of these policies highlight the
importance of meaningfully involving communities in determining how to shape
better places for people, doing so inclusively and providing new ways for people to
take part. Let’s take a look at some of these below.

Digital tools and technologies that support community engagement

While traditional forms of community engagement, such as village hall meetings, still
have an important role to play in urban planning and development, digital tools and
technologies are helping to make the process more efficient and creative.

Importantly, they are enabling and empowering citizens to play a more active role in
local decision-making, ensuring people have their voices heard at all stages of the
design and planning process.

Engagement Apps

Stakeholder engagement apps are increasingly being used to enable two-way

communication between urban planners and the community, also helping to increase
the transparency of projects.

Site Podium, for example, allows urban planners to publish pictures, videos and
documents to show developments in projects and poll the community about
important subjects, while also giving local residents a platform to contact community
engagement managers with questions, complaints and feedback.
The app includes a measurement feature as well, which allows planners to
benchmark the level of satisfaction between projects and decide whether they need
to make any changes in line with what citizens are telling them.

Participation platforms

Citizen participation platforms provide a central place for people to share their ideas
with other citizens and local authorities online. While these sorts of platforms are not
always fully-inclusive as they require access to an internet connection and device,
therefore excluding some marginalised groups, they still have an important role to
play in enabling diverse participation.

Take Linz’s participation platform, for example, which allows citizens to participate on

any topic from anywhere at any time, and vote on what they would like to see the city
take on. Projects that receive at least 30 votes from other citizens within 60 days are
taken into account. Within the first few months of the platform’s launch, 26 proposals
were shared; four of these reached the threshold and at least one will be
implemented.

VR and AR

Tools like virtual reality and augmented reality are great for engaging communities in
urban planning in particular as they give a ‘real world’ perspective and allow people
to experience what enhanced areas might look like in ways that other technologies
simply can’t.

This immersive nature not only encourages greater engagement with projects, it also
helps to strengthen the relationship and trust between local authorities and
communities as citizens can actually see what’s being planned.

In one study examining how VR can increase civic participation in designing public

spaces, participants that viewed the 360 degree rendered images with VR
technology expressed a “significantly higher” engagement in the co-design process
than those using their computer at home or viewing 2D paper planes.

Gamification

Gamification is increasingly being explored as a way to boost citizen participation in

urban planning – from enhancing stakeholder exploration, motivation and
interactions to rewarding people for sharing their ideas.

Sustainability app GreenApes, for instance, allows cities to choose sustainable

behaviours they would like to reward. This could be anything from waste sorting to
energy savings to green mobility. Citizens then earn ‘BankoNuts’ when they share
their sustainable ideas, for example a creative recycling project, which they can then
use to claim rewards from GreenApe partners, venues and companies.

This is an incredibly effective way to encourage community engagement in a way

that also encourages more planet-friendly behaviours.

Community engagement through digital placemaking

For the past four months, Calvium has been researching how digital placemaking
can enhance the physical and mental health and emotional wellbeing of North
London’s stakeholder communities.

Given North East London’s growing and diverse population, which covers eight
boroughs, stakeholder community engagement has been crucial to the development
and direction of this project. This involved various methods of engagement –
traditional and digital – in order to imagine digital placemaking futures.

While what we have learned about people’s attitudes towards digital technologies in
this context has been mostly favourable, we will also be taking any concerns into
account. To ignore these would go against the fundamentals of inclusive design and
ethical practice.

The Heritage Eye app we designed and developed for Bristol City Council,

meanwhile, shows how digital placemaking has a role to play in community
engagement beyond the planning and consultation stage.

The app enables citizens to submit quick reports about buildings in their
neighbourhoods when they spot a potential problem, providing a platform to take
photographs and write short comments about local buildings.

Within the context of the built environment, supporting communities to play a

meaningful role in the management and maintenance of heritage sites and urban
areas should be seen as a natural extension of the collaborative design process.

Buku Collaborative Planning

The history and evolution of collaborative planning

The history and evolution of collaborative planning can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s, when
there was growing concern about the negative impacts of traditional top-down planning processes
on communities and the built environment. During this time, a new approach to planning emerged,
known as "participatory planning," which emphasized the involvement of local communities and
stakeholders in the planning process.
Over time, the participatory planning approach evolved into the concept of collaborative planning,
which recognizes the importance of collaboration and partnerships between multiple stakeholders
in the planning process. Collaborative planning is based on the idea that planning should be a
democratic process, where all voices are heard and all perspectives are considered in the creation of
plans and policies that affect communities.

In recent years, collaborative planning has gained increasing popularity and relevance, as more and
more communities are seeking to create more livable and sustainable places in the face of complex
social, economic, and environmental challenges. Collaborative planning is seen as a way to create
more inclusive, equitable, and responsive planning processes that can help to shape places in
fragmented societies.

The evolution of collaborative planning has been influenced by various factors, including changing
attitudes towards planning and community engagement, the rise of new technologies and social
media platforms, and the increasing complexity of planning issues. The field continues to evolve and
expand, as new approaches and techniques are developed to address the challenges of
implementing collaborative planning processes in diverse social, cultural, and political contexts.

The principles and key elements of collaborative planning

The principles and key elements of collaborative planning vary depending on the context and the
specific approach being used, but there are some common themes that are considered essential to a
successful collaborative planning process. Some of the key principles and elements of collaborative
planning include:

Inclusiveness and diversity: Collaborative planning should be inclusive and seek to involve a wide
range of stakeholders, including those who are often marginalized or excluded from traditional
planning processes.

Partnership and trust: Collaborative planning relies on building partnerships and trust among
stakeholders, and creating a supportive environment for dialogue and collaboration.

Transparency and accountability: Collaborative planning should be transparent, open, and

accountable, with clear processes and systems in place to ensure that all stakeholders have a voice
and can hold decision-makers accountable.

Empowerment and decision-making: Collaborative planning should empower stakeholders and allow
them to participate in decision-making processes in meaningful ways.

Integration and holistic approach: Collaborative planning should take a holistic and integrated
approach to planning, considering the interconnections between different aspects of the built
environment, such as land use, transportation, housing, and community services.

Adaptability and flexibility: Collaborative planning should be adaptable and flexible, and be able to
respond to changing circumstances and evolving needs over time.

Long-term focus: Collaborative planning should have a long-term focus, taking into consideration the
future impacts of planning decisions and ensuring that plans are sustainable over the long term.

Outcome-oriented: Collaborative planning should be outcome-oriented, focusing on the results and

benefits that are achieved for communities and the built environment, rather than just the process
itself.
These are some of the key principles and elements of collaborative planning, and they provide a
framework for creating successful and effective collaborative planning processes. However, it is
important to note that the specific approach and methods used in a given context may vary,
depending on the unique challenges and opportunities faced by the stakeholders involved.

The benefits and limitations of collaborative planning

Collaborative planning has a number of potential benefits, including:

Increased community involvement and engagement: Collaborative planning helps to engage and
empower local communities, giving them a voice in the planning process and allowing them to shape
the places where they live.

Improved decision-making: Collaborative planning allows for more informed and inclusive decision-
making, as stakeholders are able to share their perspectives and ideas, and decision-makers are able
to consider a wider range of views and options.

Increased trust and cooperation: Collaborative planning helps to build trust and cooperation among
stakeholders, creating a more supportive and positive environment for dialogue and collaboration.

More equitable and sustainable outcomes: Collaborative planning can result in more equitable and
sustainable outcomes, as it takes into consideration the needs and perspectives of all stakeholders
and seeks to create plans and policies that are beneficial for everyone.

Better implementation: Collaborative planning can improve the implementation of plans and
policies, as stakeholders are more likely to support and advocate for plans and initiatives that they
have been involved in creating.

However, it is also important to recognize that collaborative planning has limitations and challenges,
including:

Time and resource intensive: Collaborative planning can be time-consuming and resource-intensive,
requiring significant investment in terms of staff time, money, and other resources.

Unequal power dynamics: Collaborative planning can be limited by unequal power dynamics among
stakeholders, with some voices and perspectives dominating the process and others being
marginalized.

Resistance to change: Collaborative planning can face resistance from traditional decision-makers
and stakeholders who are used to working in a more top-down and hierarchical manner.

Difficulty in reaching consensus: Collaborative planning can be challenging in situations where

stakeholders have conflicting interests and priorities, and it can be difficult to reach a consensus on
the best course of action.

Limited impact: Collaborative planning may have limited impact if it is not integrated into larger
decision-making processes, or if decision-makers do not take the results of the collaborative process
into consideration.

Despite these limitations, many communities and organizations have found that the benefits of
collaborative planning outweigh the challenges, and that it is a valuable and effective approach for
shaping places in fragmented societies. However, it is important to approach collaborative planning
with a clear understanding of the potential benefits and limitations, and to develop strategies to
address the challenges as they arise.

Case studies of successful and unsuccessful collaborative planning initiatives

There have been many successful and unsuccessful collaborative planning initiatives around the
world, and these can provide valuable lessons for communities and organizations seeking to
implement collaborative planning processes. Some examples of successful and unsuccessful
initiatives include:

Successful initiatives:

Portland, Oregon's Metro 2040 Plan: This collaborative planning initiative brought together a wide
range of stakeholders, including government officials, community leaders, business owners, and
residents, to create a long-term plan for the region's growth and development. The result was a plan
that was widely supported and that has helped to shape the region's growth and development in a
sustainable and equitable manner.

City of Calgary's Our Tomorrow Initiative: This collaborative planning initiative engaged over 15,000
Calgarians in a series of public consultations and discussions to create a vision for the city's future.
The initiative was widely praised for its inclusiveness and transparency, and it helped to build a sense
of shared ownership and commitment among Calgarians.

South Atlanta Community Land Trust: This collaborative planning initiative brought together a
coalition of community-based organizations, government agencies, and local residents to create a
land trust that would ensure the affordability and availability of affordable housing in the South
Atlanta community. The initiative has been widely recognized as a model for community-driven,
collaborative planning, and it has helped to ensure that the community's housing needs are met in a
sustainable and equitable manner.

Unsuccessful initiatives:

Toronto's "Vision 2020" Plan: This collaborative planning initiative aimed to create a vision for
Toronto's future and to engage residents in a series of public consultations and discussions.
However, the initiative was widely criticized for its lack of transparency and accountability, and for
not adequately addressing the concerns and needs of marginalized communities. The initiative was
ultimately seen as a failure, as it did not result in any meaningful changes or improvements to the
city's planning processes.

The Portland Development Commission's "Lents Urban Renewal Plan": This collaborative planning
initiative aimed to revitalize the Lents neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, through a series of public
meetings and consultations. However, the initiative was widely criticized for its lack of transparency
and accountability, and for not adequately addressing the concerns of local residents and
businesses. The initiative was seen as a failure, as it did not result in any meaningful changes or
improvements to the neighborhood, and it contributed to a loss of trust and cooperation among
stakeholders.

These examples demonstrate the importance of considering the benefits and limitations of
collaborative planning, and of approaching the process with a clear understanding of the challenges
and opportunities that may arise. While some initiatives have been successful in creating more
inclusive, equitable, and sustainable outcomes, others have fallen short, and it is important to learn
from both the successes and failures of these initiatives in order to create more effective and
successful collaborative planning processes.Case studies of successful and unsuccessful collaborative
planning initiatives

The role of various stakeholders (such as government, community organizations, private sector,
and residents) in collaborative planning processes)

In collaborative planning processes, each stakeholder group plays a unique and important role in
shaping the outcome.

Government: Government entities, such as local or regional planning departments, play a critical
role in facilitating and organizing the collaborative planning process. They may provide resources,
such as funding and staff, and set the legal framework for the process. Governments can also play a
role in mediating conflicts between stakeholders and ensuring that the planning process is
transparent and accountable.

Community organizations: Community-based organizations, such as neighborhood associations and

advocacy groups, play an important role in ensuring that the perspectives and needs of marginalized
and underrepresented communities are represented in the planning process. They can also serve as
a link between residents and the government, providing a platform for residents to voice their
concerns and opinions.

Private sector: The private sector, including developers and business owners, can bring expertise and
resources to the planning process. They can also provide insights into the economic implications of
planning decisions and help to ensure that the planning process takes into account the needs of the
business community.

Residents: Residents, including individual citizens and community members, play a critical role in
collaborative planning processes by providing their perspectives and opinions on planning decisions
that affect their lives. They can bring local knowledge and understanding to the planning process and
help to ensure that planning decisions are responsive to the needs and priorities of the community.

It is important to note that in order for collaborative planning to be effective, all stakeholders must
be engaged and participate in a meaningful and equitable manner. This includes ensuring that all
stakeholders have access to information and resources, that their perspectives and opinions are
heard and valued, and that the planning process is transparent and accountable. By working
together and engaging in open and honest dialogue, stakeholders can create plans that are more
inclusive, equitable, and sustainable.

The role of technology and social media in collaborative planning

Technology and social media play a growing role in collaborative planning processes, offering new
opportunities for stakeholders to engage and participate in the planning process. Some of the ways
that technology and social media can be used in collaborative planning include:

Communication and engagement: Technology and social media can be used to facilitate
communication and engagement between stakeholders, allowing for real-time feedback and
interaction. For example, online forums, social media platforms, and other digital tools can be used
to conduct surveys, host virtual town hall meetings, and collect input from residents.
Information dissemination: Technology can be used to provide information and resources to
stakeholders, such as maps, data, and visual simulations. This can help to build understanding and
support for planning decisions and can also provide stakeholders with greater transparency and
accountability.

Decision-making support: Technology can also be used to support decision-making in collaborative

planning processes. For example, geographic information systems (GIS) and other digital tools can be
used to analyze and visualize data, such as population trends, land use patterns, and infrastructure
needs, to inform planning decisions.

Collaboration and coordination: Technology and social media can also be used to support
collaboration and coordination among stakeholders, allowing for real-time feedback and
collaboration. For example, online project management tools can be used to track progress, assign
tasks, and manage timelines and budgets.

However, it is important to note that technology and social media are not a replacement for face-to-
face engagement and direct communication. In order for technology and social media to be effective
in collaborative planning, they must be used in conjunction with traditional forms of engagement
and communication, such as public meetings, workshops, and community outreach. Additionally, it is
important to ensure that all stakeholders have access to technology and the skills to participate in
the process, in order to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities and power imbalances.

Future trends and challenges for collaborative planning

There are several trends and challenges that are shaping the future of collaborative planning:

Increased use of technology: The increasing availability and sophistication of technology is expected
to continue to drive innovation in collaborative planning. This includes the use of virtual and
augmented reality tools, big data analytics, and other digital technologies to support engagement,
decision-making, and collaboration.

Greater emphasis on equity and inclusion: Collaborative planning is likely to continue to place a
greater emphasis on equity and inclusion, particularly in regards to engaging marginalized and
underrepresented communities. This may include initiatives to increase the participation of these
groups in the planning process, as well as efforts to address structural inequalities and systemic
barriers.

Climate change and sustainability: Collaborative planning is expected to increasingly focus on

addressing the challenges posed by climate change and promoting sustainable development. This
may include efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote energy efficiency, and adapt to
the impacts of climate change.

Integration with other planning and policy areas: Collaborative planning is likely to become
increasingly integrated with other planning and policy areas, such as transportation, housing, and
economic development. This will require closer coordination and collaboration between different
planning and policy domains, as well as a more holistic approach to planning and decision-making

Managing complexity and uncertainty: Collaborative planning processes are becoming increasingly
complex and involve a wide range of stakeholders, interests, and perspectives. This presents a
challenge in terms of managing conflicts and navigating competing priorities, as well as ensuring that
the planning process is transparent and accountable.

Balancing short-term and long-term goals: Collaborative planning processes must balance short-term
and long-term goals, including considerations for both economic and social factors. This requires a
careful balancing of immediate needs and long-term priorities, as well as an understanding of the
trade-offs and compromises that may be necessary to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Overall, the future of collaborative planning will require ongoing efforts to address these challenges
and embrace new opportunities, in order to create more equitable, sustainable, and livable
communities for all.