MyPlace

Project Dates: From March 2014 to March 2017

Project Leader: Prof. Peter Wright (PI)

Staff: Prof. Patrick Olivier, Dr. Thomas Ploetz, Dr. John Vines, Dr. Rob Comber, Rose Gilroy, Helen Jarvis, Lynne Corner, Catherine Degnan, Tim Townsend, Katie Brittain

Sponsors: EPSRC

The aim of MyPlace is to develop and test through real-world research a digital platform and toolkit that will enable members of the public to engage with local councils and other organisations more effectively in the research, planning and design of the urban environment.

The specific domain of this project is people's experiences of mobility and access to the urban environment, and how this changes with age. The project is a collaboration with City Councils in the Northeast Region, and Newcastle's Age Friendly City initiative. Through VoiceNorth we will collaborate with members of the public in the project as co-researchers and co-designers, to collect a body of quantitative and qualitative data on older people's experiences of mobility in the built environment, and to co-design digital tools, information and services to enhance that experience.

To achieve this we will design and develop a toolkit of digital sensors to capture evidence and experiences from older people's journeys through and social interactions within the city centre. We will combine this evidence with social research data through interactive architectural visualisations which will support citizens and stakeholder in participatory design of the age friendly city.

We will also develop a participatory platform which will allow members of the general public to access, comment, and vote on design issues, and to add their own experiences of access and the built environment. This extended public engagement in the research and design activities will offer a new model of public engagement in civic decision making.

The toolkit and platform will be validated through the design of and deployment of digital interventions in the city. We will also document our findings for policy makers and other stakeholders regionally and nationally.

Collaborators: Rose Dalton (Northumbria University), Mark Blythe (Northumbria University), James Charlton (Northumbria University).