Ikbal Berk
The Effects of Participatory Design Tools on Community Engagement in Developing Neighbourhoods
With the increase of urbanisation in cities, including the rise of density and commercial structures, many neighbourhoods situated at the city centre peripheries are under the pressure of rapid developments that can change the built environment and social life. In the UK context, many local communities living in these neighbourhoods establish non-governmental community initiatives to have an organisational structure against other stakeholders such as city councils and project developers. During this process, participatory design is utilised to collect ideas from the community and establish or increase community engagement to make a change. The study investigates the effects of participatory design and participatory design tools on community engagement in developing neighbourhoods. Shieldfield is chosen as the study area, a neighbourhood situated at the east edge of the Newcastle city centre and under the pressure of increasing student accommodations. By using participatory action research and visualisation of the problem-solving process, the reciprocal relationship between the community and co-design process is aimed to examine.